Back to the roots
Old Crow Medicine Show, with Ketch Secor in the middle holding the fiddle. Ed Rode photo
I first laid eyes and ears on Americana/roots act Old Crow Medicine Show at the 2005 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. At the time, I was a 20-year-old college student on my first solo road trip from my native North Country of Upstate New York—in search of the sound, the way.
In truth, Old Crow simply didn’t sound like any other artist on the bill that weekend, the performance itself this live-wire affair of acoustic instrumentation. And that raw and real sentiment of talent and timelessness has remained steadfast; this melodic, artistic testament to a wild-n-out Grammy-winning string band who formed from humble origins in 1998.
At the core of Old Crow is its ringleader, Ketch Secor, who remains the only consistent member of the band since its inception. A sponge for knowledge and experience, Secor is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to American music and the history behind it—the sonic realms of country, rock, folk, blues, gospel, bluegrass, jazz and whatever may branch off from there.
Talking with Smoky Mountain Living over the phone from Glasgow, Scotland—while traveling with his partner, Molly Tuttle, as they provided the opening act for country megastar Tyler Childers on his European tour—Secor spoke at length about what it means to be an entertainer, why he’ll always root for the underdog, and how the music of Old Crow Medicine Show is as vibrant now as it was the day it came to fruition those many years ago.
For someone like yourself, a musicologist who’s interested in the origins of all kinds of genres of music, what’s it like for you to go back to Europe?
It’s like thumbing through the index of the “Songbook of America.” I just feel so much closer—the gods are smiling down on us. It’s like the headwaters for some roaring river that [the songs are] all spilling forth from.
I was recently listening to Old Crow’s 2001 album “Eutaw.” Even though that record is 25 years old, it felt like there was no dust on it, still as fresh then as it is now.
Well, that’s a testament to the power of this American music that we play. This roots music? It’s rich. Anytime anybody discovers it, it’s like gold. It’s not better or worse; you just dig it out of the ground and it’s as good as it’ll ever be, but it can be made anew for the next generation.
You know, there’s just something about the skinny white boy who learns to play the blues and how it makes you feel invincible when you’re 18 years old. It’s like you found the Holy Grail and you just want to drink from it and see the cup replenish.
Do you still feel that way?
I do feel that music is the fountain of youth and that it’s an elixir of the gods that must be shared. And I feel a little bit like I’m in the service industry, [where] I’m supposed to fill everybody’s cup full to the brim. And I’m still just as on fire for music. I see it as a Rosetta Stone to understand the world.
Right now, before you called, I was learning an old Scottish ballad called “Loch Lomond.” It’s a really popular melody that made its way into a number of American songs. It’s about a place that I’m just trying to buy a train ticket to.
And I love how the landscape can be both physical and metaphysical, where a song can transport you to a place or you can go to a place and carry a song with you. I feel the presence of these things, a way that we’re all connected through a kind of spirit, that songs can pull us together.
There must be some kind of mathematics and science behind all this, but I just think in four chords, so I wouldn’t be the guy to ask.
And I would surmise that you’ve never lost that childlike wonder of discovery and curiosity. You always have come across as someone willing to just look around the corner and see what’s there.
Yeah, I definitely haven’t lost [that]. If anything, I’ve just become more excited and impassioned about that spirit of discovery, old records, and the mythology of the music maker. I always like that music maker that only made three or six records. I always tend to gravitate to some unsung hero, some ball player that only played in a couple of games. I always liked to root for the underdog.
I mean, I like Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family. I love the legends, you know. But I always like to think about the 25 versions of Elvis [Presley] that never made it to Sun Studio [in Memphis, Tennessee]. There might have been 250 of ‘em, to be honest.
It’s really a rich art. We’re a funny sort, us music makers. You find one and then you find 15 more just like, and it couldn’t be more different than the next. There’s just something in the [musical] waters, and there’s still something in the water. And every generation has a new opportunity to put forth its best and brightest.
Want to go?
Old Crow Medicine Show will be one of the headliners at the 25th annual Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, which will take place Sept. 11-13 in downtown Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia. Other marquee acts to appear include Sierra Ferrell, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Los Lobos, The War and Treaty, Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives, Mon Rovia, Clay Street Unit, Darrell Scott String Band (featuring Rob Ickes), Maggie Antone, Acoustic Syndicate, and many more. birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/festival-bristol-rhythm.