Old Crow Medicine Show ready to paint the town in Iowa City concert

Old Crow Medicine Show founding member Ketch Secor had no shortage of topics he was ready to discuss when he phoned in for an interview. Chief among them was the recent return to the band’s lineup of Christopher “Critter” Fuqua, who co-founded the band with Secor in 1998.

Fuqua, who sang fan-favorite songs such as “Take ‘Em Away” and “Big Time In the Jungle” left Old Crow Medicine Show in 2007, returned for a second stint from 2012 to 2020, and now begins his third stretch.

“We’re just really excited to have Critter,” Secor said. “I started this band with him when I was a kid. I’m still a kid at heart, but not according to my birth certificate.”

It’s not just Fuqua’s return that has Secor enthused as the latest iteration of Old Crow returned to the concert trail this year, including a stop at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City on Nov. 23, 2024.

The band now has its studio space; has developed a productive partnership with a new producer; has recently released the album “Jubilee”; and brought a pair of band members on board in 2023.

All of this has Secor feeling good about where things stand for his band 25 years into a career that has seen Old Crow Medicine Show become an influential force in roots music and a leader in the resurgence of string bands on the music scene.

The band returned from the pandemic with a reshuffled lineup — Mike Harris (banjo/guitar); Mason Via (guitar); and drummer Jerry Pentecost, who replaced Chance McCoy, Joe Andrews and Charlie Worsham — and opened their own newly outfitted studio located just north of Nashville. That’s where the latest edition of Old Crow made its critically acclaimed 2022 album, “Paint This Town,” followed by the Grammy-nominated 2023 album, “Jubilee.”

Those accomplishments, and most significantly, the ability to tour again, re-energized Old Crow Medicine Show coming out of the pandemic, Secor said.

“I just think (the new energy) had more to do with COVID and being able to work again,” he said. “And then the new lineup, a new producer (Matt Ross-Spang), the studio we were in, that we’re working out of now that’s something that we own — that’s been a big factor in the kind of collective spirit of the band. There’s a lot of renewal that happened out of the COVID experience.

“It kind of reminded me of the earliest days of Old Crow Medicine Show,” he said, “just that kind of hustle up your kill and going into the towns as a busker and not knowing what lay in store behind the city limits sign, that unknown quality of ‘Well, what’s next, boys? I guess we’ll find out.’ ”

Band’s roots

Secor isn’t exaggerating when he talks of Old Crow’s beginnings as a busking band. The band members cut their teeth and began shaping their sound — a blend of old-time string band folk, bluegrass, country and other traditional roots sounds mixed with rock and a modern energy — playing on streets in communities around the country.

It was during one of these impromptu performances in Boone, N.C., that folk/bluegrass legend Doc Watson saw Old Crow and invited the group to play Merlefest, the popular Wilkesboro, N.C., music festival named for his late son, Merle Watson.

That appearance gave Old Crow the momentum to start building a touring base, to later on get a record deal and in 2004 release their debut album “O.C.M.S.” That album contained “Wagon Wheel,” a song Bob Dylan started writing, but didn’t finish, for the soundtrack of the 1973 film “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.” Secor had heard the tune on Dylan bootlegs and decided to finish the song, eventually getting Dylan’s blessing to release it on “O.C.M.S.”

“Wagon Wheel” caught on and became a signature song for Old Crow, gradually amassing sales and downloads on the way to topping the 1 million mark in 2013. That was the year Darius Rucker covered the tune and turned it into a chart-topping country hit that further raised awareness of Old Crow Medicine Show, while providing the band with a welcome income infusion.

Seven Old Crow Medicine Show albums have followed “O.C.M.S.” Where “Paint This Town” leaned strongly toward frisky and catchy material, “Jubilee” has more of an even balance between energetic songs (“Keel Over and Die” and “Ballad of Jubilee Jones”) and rustic ballads (“Allegheny Lullaby,” “Daughter of the Highlands” and “Miles Away”).

Nowadays

Secor said “Jubilee” finds today’s edition of Old Crow hitting their stride.

“The first album (“Paint This Town”) was kind of a get your sea legs and let’s figure out what this is like. Then the second was now let’s make a record where we write all of the material together,” he said. “Mike and Mason and Jerry are all writers on the new album in ways they weren’t as much on the first album.”

In the time between finishing “Jubilee” and Fuqua’s return, Old Crow went through yet another rejiggering of the band lineup. Pentecost moved on and was replaced by Dante Pope, while multi-instrumentalist P.J. George III has joined to create a seven-man lineup that also includes Secor, Morgan Jahnig (bass), Cory Younts (keyboards), Harris and now Fuqua (replacing Via).

The return of Fuqua came after he, along with another former band member, Willie Watson, joined Old Crow for a show in Nashville this past winter.

“There's just been a kind of a feeling of return that has been palpable and kind of hard to deny,” Secor said. “Critter isn't in the band because of a choice that the band made. You know, Critter just sort of listens to a different voice every once in a while than the one that says ‘OK it’s time to get on the bus (with Old Crow).’ And that voice can say a host of other things.

“He’s had a couple different gigs. He’s been writing short stories. He’s an active member of the addiction recovery community here in Nashville. So he just sort of scripts (his activities) the way he wants to, because we’ve been doing this since the seventh grade, me and him. I wasn’t surprised that Critter came back. But this isn’t the first time I asked him. I basically asked him about every six months.”

Fuqua’s return has meant the band as a whole had to go through an adjustment period. Part of that process has involved learning some songs Fuqua sings that the band couldn’t perform in his absence. Secor has enjoyed reacquainting himself with that material and figuring out how to best use the talents of today’s band members in performing those songs.

“Critter brings back a lot of tunes that the audience hasn't heard in a while and it just makes it fun for me as the songwriter, too, because I get to play songs, work up tunes that I wrote years ago that I thought were really great,” Secor said.

“But the thing about an ever-rotating lineup of Old Crow Medicine Show when you are the one guy that hasn't changed, it gets a little bit sticky around, you basically have to learn every single part of every song. You have to learn just to lead the song. You have to learn the tenor part, the baritone part, middle part, the mandolin part, the banjo part because the skill set that everybody brings in is unique to them. So in order to keep the show running, you just kind of gotta learn all of the positions.”