Old Crow Medicine Show - The Best of Old Crow Medicine Show

  by Carl Bookstein

published: 3 / 4 / 2017

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An Americana string band, based in Nashville Tennessee, Old Crow Medicine Show got their start by busking on street corners up and down the East Coast and Canada. They caught the attention of roots music icon Doc Watson, who found them playing in front of a North Carolina pharmacy, and subsequently gave a boost to their career. Now two times Grammy award winners, they are fifteen years into a career that crosses genres. They are members of the Grand Ole Opry and are influential on a new guard of folk rock revivalists. Their 'Best Of' collection begins with 'Wagon Wheel', a song that went to number one on the country charts in a version played by Darius Rucker. The song is actually a remarkable co-write: The chorus originally by Bob Dylan; then Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show was given permission to complete it. With a resonant hum of a fiddle, the song begins. “I made it down the coast in seventeen hours… Rock me mama like the wind and the rain… Rock me mama like a southbound train.” It is a tune that captures the true spirit of travel, cuts to the core and warmly pierces the soul - something quite special. 'Tell It to Me' is a rollicking roots number about cocaine and corn liquor. 'Down Home Girl' features lyrics about a girl walking through the cotton fields, a girl so down home that she drives the narrator to head to Sunday Mass. 'Big Time in the Jungle' tells the story of a soldier sent out to the war in Vietnam. “I know that Uncle Sam needs me to fight for an ideal I know nothing about.” 'CC Rider' is a very Old Crow take on an old blues staple, notably a hit for Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, evocatively re-captured here. 'Take ‘Em Away' is a plea for the Lord to take away the narrator’s chains: “My heart is broken because my spirit’s not free.” 'I Hear Them All' possesses lyrics about crying from heaven, tender words from Zion, Noah’s waterfall and the prophets all. It is a folk song about religious revelation. 'Heart Up in the Sky' is the closer, one of two previously unreleased tracks here and a good one. It is more soul soothing down home roots music from Old Crow Medicine Show - a band that consistently pleases.

Track Listing:-

1 Wagon Wheel
2 Tell It to Me
3 Down Home Girl
4 Alabama High-Test
5 Big Time in the Jungle
6 CC Rider
7 Take 'Em Away
8 Humdinger
9 Fall on My Knees
10 My Good Gal
11 I Hear Them All
12 Caroline
13 Black-Haired Québécoise
14 Heart up in the Sky

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/OldCrowMedicineShow/
http://www.crowmedicine.com/
https://twitter.com/crowmedicine
https://www.youtube.com/user/oldcrowvideos
https://www.instagram.com/crowmedicine

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