Friday, August 13, 2004 ... 9:25 AM
Suburban Hilltop Tent Revival: Old Crow Medicine Show at Newport Folk
(I posted this already at the Old Crow Fans message board.)
I saw Old Crow's first set on Sunday, at the Borders stage. They were the act of the day. Of the weekend. And I mean I saw Steve Earle, Lucinda, Rufus, Wilco, Doc fucking Watson -- and each of them was brilliant -- but Old Crow were the trophy of the festival.
It was not a soul under that pavilion not wholly converted inside of thirty seconds. They shook it like to make it break. Watching them stomp and holler their way through songs and styles 80 or 100 years old or older -- ironically enough (and doubly ironically, since the same thing was happening at the same festival 45 years ago), there is no way not to believe that you are looking at the Next Big Thing. You believe that these kids are bound for glory.
Well, but then you sort of realize: this is old-timey string band music, dude. You're telling me they're gonna wrench the hiphop out the hands of the record companies and replace it with: an open-back 5-string banjo? O Brother was big, but. Plus, you know, we've seen what compny money does to country music. It's a sausage-maker that turns raw twangy meat into Oscar Meyer Music weiners. You put Hank Williams in, and Garth Brooks slides out. Loretta in, Shania out. Bill Monroe in ... Nickel fucking Creek out.
But at the same time, you hear Old Crow, and you want people to know about them. And then you also want to keep them a secret. And you think, Can they be kept secret? And you think, if the word is going to get out, then I wanna be the one who gets it the fuck out. So that later on when I see Old Crow t-shirts on 14-yr-old girls at the mall I can say to my friends, "I fucking told you."
So listen: every night they've got an audience and you're not in it, you're missing something special. See them in little bars and sweaty tents, friends, while you still can.
Brendan
0 Comments:
Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas
(Novello Festival Press, April 2008)
includes my essay, "Link Wray"
MUSIC
Flop Eared Mule
The Celestial Monochord
HickoryWind.org
Modern Acoustic Magazine / Blog
Faking It
Honey, Where You Been So Long?
whiskey-girl
Porchlight
Charlotte-related
Emily A. Benton
Laurie Koster's Charlotte & Area Events
Evening Muse
Neighborhood Theatre
OTHER THAN MUSIC
Rusty Barnes
Mixed Animal
Cans and Jars
Night Train
Cat and Girl
Tom Drury
Ian Frazier
Film Freak Central
November 9, 2007
Eilen Jewell
The Evening Muse, Charlotte, NC
***review!***
June 16, 2007:
Carrie Rodriguez w/ Tim Easton
The Evening Muse, Charlotte, NC
***review!***
June 2, 2007:
Mt. Airy Fiddlers Convention
***review!***
July 10, 2005:
Chris Scruggs
The Evening Muse, Charlotte, NC
***review!***
July 8, 2005:
Tim Easton
The Evening Muse, Charlotte, NC
***review!***
February 19, 2005:
Neko Case and The Sadies w/ Visqueen
Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
***review!***
September 17, 2004:
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings w/ Old Crow Medicine Show
Theater At Lime Kiln, Lexington, VA
***review!***
August 17, 2004:
Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue
Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA
***review!***
August 7 & 8, 2004:
Newport Folk Festival
Newport, R.I.
***review!***
July 11, 2004:
Cowboy Junkies
Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA
***review!***
Various Artists:
Friends of Old Time Music: the folks arrival 1961-1965 (at HickoryWind.org)
Neko Case:
Live From Austin TX DVD (at HickoryWing.org)
Old Crow Medicine Show:
Big Iron World
Sampson Pittman:
"Highway 61 Blues"
Baby Boy Warren:
"Stop Breakin Down"
Nina Nastasia:
The Blackened Air
Ryan Adams:
Jacksonville City Nights
Robert Wilkins:
"Rolling Stone"
Neko Case:
Furnace Room Lullaby
Etta Baker:
One Dime Blues
Steve Earle:
The Revolution Starts Now
Grey DeLisle:
The Graceful Ghost
