Old Crow Medicine Show.

Last Thursday my brother the programmer treated me to a concert; Old Crow Medicine Show at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. They started this tour last year as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the release of Bob Dylan's Blond On Blond. I have heard most of these songs over the years, but probably couldn't name one or say which album they came from.

I was only familiar with this band by their name and the fact that they are a Grammy award winning group. I think they would be classified as a 'roots' band, although one of their Grammys (sic) is for Best Folk Album.

The show started with the band marching onto the stage playing "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", or as I have always known it, "Everybody Must Get Stoned". Audience participation was high (wink wink). They also sold drinks at the venue. I can't recall the order of the songs from memory, and I don't think they were in album-order, but I really enjoyed the show, especially their rousing version of "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again".

The leader of the band, Ketch Secor, had an engaging personality and related some amusing stories. His imagining of Dylan's arrival in Nashville to record the album, paraphrasing: "Country music in Nashville strictly adhered to a set formula. Two minutes forty-five seconds, verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus and out. Dylan came to town and said, 'My songs have 14 verses. And no chorus'". How he and band mate Critter Fuqua snuck off to New York City to see Dylan when they were in high school. "I told my mom I was staying at Critter's house. He told his mom he was staying at my house and we drove all the way to New York and arrived too late."

I think everybody in the band played everything. They might be playing a mandolin on one song, fiddle on the next and then drums on another. Then to the piano. Exceptions were the bassist, Morgan Jahnig and the guitjoist, Kevin Hayes. Is that even a word? Guitjo, a name I've never heard before but is a banjo body with a 6-string guitar neck. He also sang "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat". On several songs, the instrument tech came out to play drums, too. Other band members are Chance McCoy and Cory Younts.

Typical instrumentation was guitjo, guitar, fiddle, double-bass, piano, steel guitar, but it could have been anyone playing any of those instruments. Talented bunch of guys.

After they played through the album and took a break, they returned to play a few of their own songs. Nice, catchy, blue-grassy songs. Then an unusual piece, Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", and back to Dylan with an almost-acappella version of "Blowin' In The Wind". The audience seemed to know all the words, too.

They took another break and came back for their encore,  and energetic version of "Like A Rolling Stone".

My only complaint during the concert was the exceptionally loud kick drum. It not only kicked you in the chest, it also tried to knock you over. Occasionally, the bass would dip below the crossover and you would almost get blown away. I was sitting just 8 feet (2.7 m) from the desk and I wanted to yell at the guy, 'can't you hear that?' It must be the popular way to mix things these days a la the new Blade Runner sound track. 

All in all, a very enjoyable evening and I would recommend a performance by this band to anyone who loves acoustic music and a good time.
And I would have never thought a mostly-acoustic band playing mostly-acoustic music could make it sound so heavy. It was cool.