Old Crow Medicine Show
The following description comes from the event organizer.
Old Crow Medicine Show began in late September of 1998 when a monkey wrench gang of old-time string band musicians, most still in their teens, left Ithaca, New York to cross the Canadian border and play their way to the Pacific. They brought their pawnshop fiddles and banjos, guitars and washboards to downtown street corners across Ontario, to paper mill towns above Lake Superior, farmers markets in Manitoba, Indian reservations in South Dakota, and out to the streets of Vancouver and Victoria, Seattle and Portland. Along the way, they discovered a unique country sound both old and new, foreign and familiar, and they knew they had captured something special.
Altogether they built a following around the string band revival sound, finding a growing legion of fans hungry for roots music and capturing the hearts of acclaimed artists like John Prine, Gillian Welch and Marty Stuart who helped propel their music. OCMS found early exposure from both Garrison Keillor and Conan O’Brian who helped fan the flames they’d been lighting across the country with a relentless touring schedule of club dates and opening slots for artists from Ricky Skaggs to Loretta Lynn to Dave Matthews Band to Willie Nelson.
2023 marked the first quarter century together as a band, and in honor of that, OCMS released a new album, "Jubilee", recorded in late 2021 and 2022 and co-produced by Matt Ross-Spang. Thirteen new songs on "Jubilee" harken back to the earlier days of the band, with up-tempo string band numbers and jug band sounds, and featuring collaborations with the legendary Mavis Staples, Sierra Farrell, and the band’s first recording in twelve years with Old Crow co-founder Willie Watson.
As they celebrate 25 years of making live music together, Old Crow Medicine Show has established itself as America’s most beloved Old-Time String Band and one of Nashville’s most revered musical torchbearers. Travels have included concerts in a dozen foreign countries, as well as across the United States from the Hollywood Bowl to Telluride, Bonnaroo and the Newport Folk Festival to Jazz Fest. Their signature song “Wagon Wheel” is one of the most widely sung folk songs in history and was recently certified by RIAA as one of the top five country singles of all time. Old Crow Medicine Show's influence has been felt across the Americana music genre from the Lumineers to Mumford & Sons. They continue to explore sounds both old and new, foreign and familiar, and keep bringing audiences to their feet night after night. The journey that began in a Volvo Station Wagon at the Canadian border in the fall of 1998 continues to unfold in ways unimaginable. Until that vein is tapped they'll keep on digging. And that’ll likely take a good long while.