There are two unofficial truths that the band Old Crow Medicine Show seems to operate on: one, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; and two, don’t meet your heroes. The first one is evident in their 2004 song “Wagon Wheel,” which incorporates a demo that was written by music icon Bob Dylan in 1973. Fiddle player and Old Crow founder Ketch Secor added additional lyrics to create the actual song—and the resulting single, which was featured on their debut self-titled studio album, is one of their most iconic hits. Most recently, the band released 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde, where they re-recorded each track on Dylan’s album, Old Crow style, and have built a nationwide tour around it.
“l love seeing Bob Dylan. I’ve probably seen him 37 times. He’s the one concert that I go see. I first saw him when I was 12 and I never stopped,” says Secor of his fandom for the singer. You’d think that after all this time—and with the band’s success, at some point their paths may have crossed. But you’d be wrong—and Secor is OK with that.
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“I’ve gotten to do things with Bob that are really special, but I don’t necessarily need to shake his hand. One time I met Ozzie Smith, and it was really wonderful to meet Ozzie Smith, but it wasn’t like watching him turn backflips in my mind. Sometimes it’s better to just let them turn their backflips and be wizards instead of being men.”
Secor, along with his bandmates Chance McCoy, Kevin Hayes, Morgan Jahnig, Critter Fuqua, and Cory Youngs, are heading to St. Louis on Monday to perform at The Pageant. In this interview, he looks back at their busking beginnings, continuing to further the narrative of country music, and the oddest thing he’s been tossed on stage.
Old Crow got their start two decades ago busking up north and into Canada. When was the last time that you busked?
For a while, I would do it just to remember how to do it. Probably 8 years ago, for fun. Busking to pay my rent is something that I haven’t done for probably going on 15 years. And any other kind of busking isn’t really busking. Busking for fun isn’t busking. If you really busk as a profession, then you know what the differences are. We made thousands of dollars busking in New Orleans. It was a really important place for us to be buskers.
My best answer to ‘When was the last time you busked’ is every night because what we do, we learned how to do on a streetcorner. Approaching the 20th year of being in this band, busking is still at our origin and has still set the tone for everything to follow. As an entertainer on the stage the only difference between the work we do and the work that we did is that we’re on a stage now. It’s still very much a street corner performance.
And people can still throw things at you, right?
A couple of days ago somebody threw something on the stage. It was a little baggie and it looked like drugs. Our guitar player put it in his pocket, and then promoter came up to us really quickly after the show and said ‘This young woman has just come up to me and said she threw something up on the stage – please don’t think it’s drugs. It’s actually her grandfather’s ashes. He always wanted to be on the stage with you.’
Wow! At least she took advantage of the moment, though.
A lot of things get thrown up on the stage and they all have to do with the thrower. They don’t often have much to do with the band or even the objects being thrown. You get out there in the audience and you’re fired up – I’ve been in concerts as an attendee in which I’ve said things that I would never say in any other setting except in a live concert. You have permission to go a little wild. As a performer, that’s cool – I appreciate that you want to take your underwear off and throw it so it would hang from my fiddle bow. But that’s not for me – that’s for you. What I liked about the lady throwing her ashes up is that it’s for neither of us – it’s for the deceased. The object has a personality.
How did the band approach re-recording Blonde On Blonde?
This was a job that was handed to us by the Country Music Hall of Fame. As members of the Opry, as left of center country music musicians, we’re like the insider-outsider. We have something of a responsibility to do things to disrupt the country music status quo. Anything that we can do to expand the spectrum, to widen the gates – is an ‘important thing. By highlighting country music’s fabulous Jewish Minnesotan songwriting roots, we’re able to expand the genre through our act – and that’s a powerful thing and an important thing to do.
In that same vein, the band did a wonderful tribute to Prince by performing Purple Rain onstage, which was well-received by the crowd and by fans.
Part of that responsibility of widening the gap is that it’s important for a band like ours to be in a state of constant tribute. Roy Acuff said that the thing that makes country music so great is that it’s nothing you can learn, it’s something you must inherit. And inheritance comes with it. It goes two ways – the cultural fabric of it is not yours. You might throw a few more stitches into it, but it’s meant to be passed. And in the passing, you’re looking backwards. You’re constantly looking backwards. I look to Prince and the New Power Generation as much the sound of my childhood as I do anything with fiddles and banjos.
What can people expect at your concert?
Our renditions of these songs are really true to the character of our band. They really sound like us. We might as well be playing the songs that you heard us play in St. Louis through the many years that we’ve played in St. Louis. We’ve been playing there for probably 15 years or something, and I used to live there so it’s a place that’s real dear to me. It’s a setlist that’s already written, so if you want to be surprised, don’t listen to Blonde On Blonde. You don’t have to get our new record to warm up to this show – just listen to Bob. But Bob Dylan shows aren’t an entertainment force. You’re there to watch Bob do whatever Bob’s gonna give you – and if Bob just wants to sit there and grimace at you, then that’s what you’re there to love. Our show is really built on entertainment.
Old Crow Medicine Show perform Monday, June 12 at The Pageant, 6161 Delmar. For tickets or more information, go to thepageant.com.
