The Nashville string band’s first-ever concert at the outdoor amphitheater had the sell-out crowd of 1,900 kicking up its heels. (Review, photos)
Old Crow Medicine Show unfurls tale after tale of back-woods life, of bootleggers, drug addiction and imprisonment, of blue-collar struggles, dying soldiers and miscreants worried about getting put “in the slammer if they catch me with that Alabama high-test.”
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
Not exactly upbeat material, eh?
But this seven-piece string-band phenomenon of a Nashville band pounds it out with a such a joyful, vibrant tack that it’s easy to see why they’ve become a touring powerhouse, selling out venues such as Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park and turning audiences into seething, two-stepping, gleeful masses.
Racing from zero to 60 mph in a split second, the band threw it into high gear from the get-go Thursday night with “Carry Me Back to Virginia” and “Alabama High-Test,” putting a jolt into the start-the-weekend-early crowd of 1,900, many of them OCMS disciples of the highest order.
Led by fiddler and singer Ketch Secor, the ensemble’s electrified bluegrass assault incorporated heaping helpings of drums, organ and harmonica, infusing rock-fueled passion into much of the uptempo concert. Put it this way: It was the loudest bluegrass concert I’ve ever experienced, with chest-thumping bass and amped-up romps by band members, especially Secor, who twirled and pranced with happy abandon.
But to appease purists, there was room for traditional, old-timey jamming, too, with part of the band gathering around a single microphone midway through the show to uncork harmony-laden versions of “James River Blues,” gospel’s “River of Love” and an old Michigan lumberjack-themed folk song they trotted out for the first time ever: “Michigan I-O.”
Indeed, during the show, Secor dropped more Michigan references – from cities to landmarks to lakes to highways to Wolverines to Spartans – than any artist who’s ever graced the Meijer Gardens stage over the past decade, though it understandably endeared him and his bandmates to the adoring crowd.
And all those multi-tasking, instrumentally adroit band members – Secor, Kevin Hayes, Cory Younts, Critter Fuqua, Chance McCoy, Gill Landry and Morgan Jahnig – rewarded those fans by packing more music and frenetic vigor into a one-hour-and-40-minute show than most bands do in three hours.
THE VIBE
As one of OCMS’s tunes put it, it was a real “Humdinger” of a summer evening: astounding weather wedded with string-driven instrumental virtuosity. Although the crowd skewed older than expected for the band’s first-ever appearance at Meijer Gardens, Old Crow’s 20-something devotees made their presence known by standing for the entire show in the lower third of the amphitheater bowl.
THE NIGHT’S BIG MOMENTS
“How about a little hillbilly music in Grand Rapids?” With that, OCMS fired up “Bootlegger’s Boy,” a rambunctious number that boasted dueling back-to-back fiddles, band members gathering in a tight cluster to jam on stage and Secor sprinting in circles. And they followed it up with the spirited “Mississippi Saturday Night.”
Of course, later on, the band ignited an audience sing-along with its platinum-selling hit, “Wagon Wheel,” and ended the evening with an encore that included rousing renditions of Woody Guthrie’s “Union Maid” and Tom Petty’s “American Girl.”
THE BANTER
“I’m like the lone gunman before the boys come up here and wreck your face. … Some of you are gonna get weird tonight and that’s who I came to hang out with.” – Singer-songwriter Cory Chisel, who played a 40-minute opening set that showed off his terrific voice. He later joined OCMS during the encore.
“We’re glad to be up in the Great Lakes tonight. Ah, summertime in the Wolverine state in old Grand Rapids. … There’s nothing like summertime in Michigan.” – Secor, before the band played “Caroline.”
“I don’t know if Gerald Ford liked the Grateful Dead, but we’re going to sing a song for him anyway.” – Secor, before launching into “U.S. Blues (Wave That Flag).”
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music