A day of rain kept some ticketholders away, but Tuttle’s band and Old Crow Medicine Show brought bluegrass-, gospel- and country-hued sunshine to Meijer Gardens on Wednesday. Review, photos, video.
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In spite of a soggy start, Wednesday evening’s sold-out Old Crow Medicine Show summer concert series appearance at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park was a scintillating showcase of strings, Southern charm and sunny dispositions.
As predicted, tropical storm Beryl brought brief, but substantial, rain to West Michigan late Wednesday afternoon, just in time to soak concertgoers waiting in line for the amphitheater gates to open. (Imagine walking into a swimming pool, fully clad, and then sitting around in those water-logged clothes for four hours, and you get the picture.)
Thankfully, the worst of the weather moved off before the music started–huzzah!–and each artist was able to play their allotted times.
Show opener and bluegrass phenom Molly Tuttle and her Golden Highway band offered 60 minutes (about a dozen songs) of virtuosic vocals and picking, rewarding an audience who arrived on time, in spite of on-and-off-again sprinkles and a (thankfully unrealized) threat of a second-wave deluge.
The 2024 Grammy Award-winning Tuttle and her band members later joined headliners Old Crow for the show’s closing numbers, including the encore, complete with a rousing rendition of The Band’s classic, “The Weight,” a song particularly suited to that come-one, come-all approach of filling the stage with every voice at its disposal.
The strikingly attired Tuttle and crew were ebullient in their delivery of songs such as “Side Saddle,” “Over the Line” and a modern take on the traditional classic “Shady Grove” melded with “Open the Present.”
For their part, Old Crow followed a familiar, but fun, formula: Fast pace (nearly 30 songs packed into just over two hours); tongue-in-cheek, localized banter (many, many references to Michigan, the Wolverine State, the Grand River, the Tigers and more); and a smorgasbord of originals mixed with covers/standards (e.g., “Wagon Wheel,” “Great Balls of Fire” and Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” to name just a few).
As usual, the gregarious Southern string band, led by energetic frontman Ketch Secor, inspired much of the crowd (which was sold-out but not at capacity, the rain having evidently frightened away some fair-weather fans) to spend most of the show on its feet, dancing, clapping and singing along in good humor.
Up Next at Meijer Gardens: Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers with Grand Rapids Symphony perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The show is sold out.
PHOTO GALLERY: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Old Crow Medicine Show
Meijer Gardens Amphitheater
Photos by Anna Sink, Steve Baran and Tricia Boot
VIDEO: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway at Meijer Gardens
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