Old Crow Medicine Show bring it all together to play songs from some of the earliest traditions of American music – tunes from jug bands and traveling shows, back porches and dance halls, southern Appalachian string music and Memphis blues. Lead vocals are covered by Ketch Secor and Willie Watson, with Watson on guitar and Secor on fiddle and harmonica. Critter Fuqua joins in on vocals and plays banjo and slide guitar. Kevin Hayes plays the guitjo, a six-string banjo that plays like a guitar, once popular in jazz and swing music of the 1920s. Morgan Jahnig beats the doghouse bass.

The quintet met in New York in 1998 and hit the road, traveling city to city in a van and busking in the streets. They eventually settled for a year in North Carolina, where they ran into a bit of good fortune while playing in front of a local pharmacy to an impressed Doc Watson; the folk icon promptly scheduled the band to play at his MerleFest. Relocated from North Carolina, Old Crow made their Grand Ole Opry debut on the Ryman Auditorium stage in 2001, where they received a standing ovation. They made their national television debut on CMT’s ‘Grand Ole Opry Live’ in 2002 and have appeared in several documentaries: PBS’s American Roots Music series; In the Valley Where Time Stands Still, a film about the history of the Renfro Valley Barndance; and Bluegrass Journey, a portrait of the contemporary bluegrass scene. They signed to Nettwerk America in 2003, began crafting their own compositions among the jug band standards and reels that had become the backbone of the group, and went into the studio to make a record with Gillian Welch’s other half, guitarist David Rawlings, at the helm. The self-titled debut, which was recorded in RCA’s legendary Studio B (Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings) as well as Woodland Sound Studios (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), arrived the following year. The group’s second album, “Big Iron World” was produced by Rawlings and appeared in August of 2006. The band then switched producers, going with Don Was for 2008′s “Tennessee Pusher.”

Check out their video for their single “Caroline” above.

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Images Via: Google