An old-time string band with a Depression-era sound attracted approximately 1,500 revelers to Crossroads KC Thursday. An offhanded song introduction encapsulated the aesthetic of the evening's attraction. "Here's a brand new one for you," gregarious fiddler and vocalist Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show said. "It sounds just like an old one for you."
Nouveau hippies danced alongside traditional country music fans three times their age throughout the sextet's gloriously ramshackle performance. The energy level never waned throughout two raucous sets.
Unlike Split Lip Rayfield, the revered regional band with a similarly rustic mindset, Old Crow Medicine Show doesn't perform bluegrass. The Nashville-based act hews strictly to folk and gospel performed in a string band format. "Minglewood Blues," originally recorded as a jug band song in 1928, was given a recklessly exuberant reading. Old Crow Medicine Show values enthusiasm more than technical precision, a trait that distinguishes it from most acoustic acts. Secor's reaction to abroken string on his violin typifies his band's devil-may-care attitude.
"I got a three-string fiddle," Secor gleefully shouted when he inadvertently snapped a string.
Although the band played almost two hours, not one of its solos was intended to elicit shouts of approval. In spite of the constant swapping of guitars and banjos, the band's priority was insuring that the party atmosphere never waned. So sublimated are the individual identities of each band member, in fact, that the musicians were playfully introduced by the names of former players for the Kansas City Royals.
Largely because its impassioned attitude is so contagious, the band's ironic corn-pone banter was charming rather than irritating. Explanations were unnecessary anyway. Fans sang along with most of the selections even though Old Crow Medicine Show has never benefited from meaningful commercial radio or video play in its 13-year career. Hundreds raised their beverages in the air as the band played the opened strains of "Humdinger," a paean to a party boasting "wine, whiskey, women and guns."
"Wagon Wheel," the band's best known song, evoked the biggest reaction. Inspired by a Bob Dylan song fragment, the Southern travelogue has been since covered by British sensations Mumford & Sons. Old Crow Medicine Show's road to success hasn't been nearly as meteoric, but Wednesday's performance indicated that its slow and steady approach is succeeding.
"We never have played Kansas City, Missouri," Secor noted. "Until right now."
Based on the deliriously enthusiastic reaction of the an astonishingly large crowd, it's safe to say Wednesday's concert won't be Old Crow Medicine Show's last in Kansas City.
Unlike Split Lip Rayfield, the revered regional band with a similarly rustic mindset, Old Crow Medicine Show doesn't perform bluegrass. The Nashville-based act hews strictly to folk and gospel performed in a string band format. "Minglewood Blues," originally recorded as a jug band song in 1928, was given a recklessly exuberant reading. Old Crow Medicine Show values enthusiasm more than technical precision, a trait that distinguishes it from most acoustic acts. Secor's reaction to abroken string on his violin typifies his band's devil-may-care attitude.
"I got a three-string fiddle," Secor gleefully shouted when he inadvertently snapped a string.
Although the band played almost two hours, not one of its solos was intended to elicit shouts of approval. In spite of the constant swapping of guitars and banjos, the band's priority was insuring that the party atmosphere never waned. So sublimated are the individual identities of each band member, in fact, that the musicians were playfully introduced by the names of former players for the Kansas City Royals.
Largely because its impassioned attitude is so contagious, the band's ironic corn-pone banter was charming rather than irritating. Explanations were unnecessary anyway. Fans sang along with most of the selections even though Old Crow Medicine Show has never benefited from meaningful commercial radio or video play in its 13-year career. Hundreds raised their beverages in the air as the band played the opened strains of "Humdinger," a paean to a party boasting "wine, whiskey, women and guns."
"Wagon Wheel," the band's best known song, evoked the biggest reaction. Inspired by a Bob Dylan song fragment, the Southern travelogue has been since covered by British sensations Mumford & Sons. Old Crow Medicine Show's road to success hasn't been nearly as meteoric, but Wednesday's performance indicated that its slow and steady approach is succeeding.
"We never have played Kansas City, Missouri," Secor noted. "Until right now."
Based on the deliriously enthusiastic reaction of the an astonishingly large crowd, it's safe to say Wednesday's concert won't be Old Crow Medicine Show's last in Kansas City.
| Bill Brownlee, Special to The Star
Nice that they acknowledged they were in KCMO. And what a perfect venue for this show!
Posted by: crossroads rocks! | June 16, 2011 at 12:39 PM
Anybody happen to have a setlist?
Posted by: OCMS | June 17, 2011 at 08:31 AM
I'd be interested in hearing. The TOS seems rather clear that it is not unless expressly approved by Amazon. I guess if the library got it in writing then they would be ok.
Posted by: Timberland For Women | March 07, 2012 at 10:28 AM