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< Live ~ Tucson, AZ - 11/12/07 - Local Press, Reviews, Photos |
| kg |
 Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 4:52 pm |
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*Data Miner*
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 3427
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http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Music/Content?oid=oid:102937
PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 8, 2007:
By the Roots: Old Crow Medicine Show extracts the sound of classic American music
By JARRET KEENE
Ketch Secor may possess the raw, weathered voice of a moonshine-addled Carolina cropsharer, but, in fact, the 29-year-old is an Ithaca College grad whose adoration of American roots music goes beyond the academic, bordering on the priestly.
Nonetheless, his raucous band Old Crow Medicine Show is a favorite among diverse groups of music fans--from traditional folkies to indie-rockers, from old-school punkers to the gentrified listeners of Prairie Home Companion. Much like his musical heroes of the 1920s, Secor and his bandmates weave their way through different social orders, equally at home in a piss-stained downtown dive bar and an outdoor festival overflowing with wine-sipping yuppies.
"I like this idea of music providing a body of evidence that confirms an older and truer form of manner and behavior," he says, speaking to the notion of authenticity in music. "The old social order of the past has been pushed aside for the social order of the self. There was a role for musicians provided by the audience that just isn't around today."
Indeed, there's a lot that isn't around today, including the kind of boisterous old-time string band music that Secor and Co. produce. Old Crow Medicine Show's most recent album, 2006's Big Iron World, offers some of the ancient alchemy that once defined much of the nation's vast musical catalog: bluegrass, gospel, blues, country, zydeco. These elements provide the core of OCMS, which is, when you boil it all down, a metallic and towering musical structure of its own. For the last 15 months, the band toured the country before plunking down in a California studio to work on a third album. These guys have played everywhere but the deep Southwest areas of Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas, making these few dates the end of a kind of line.
"We can hear the steady squeal of brakes," says Secor. "We're slowing down now with the great big Western sky before us, and we're excited to perform."
The band plays everything from startling originals like the Vietnam narrative of "Big Time in the Jungle" to traditional fiddle-and-banjo tunes like "Tear It Down" to rewritten Bob Dylan fragments like "Wagon Wheel" (which takes its chorus from a song written for the film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid). Which isn't to say that Secor doesn't watch what's happening in music today. Sure, he has a CD player, but don't ask him if he needs an iPod--he'd prefer a Victrola for Christmas, actually.
"Whatever it is, music has a way of making a mark on people," Secor insists. "And there's music for every man, woman and child. I like the music that leaves a mark all the way through your body. Some people have found a way to do it via iTunes, but I do what I do because I carry music around in my heart. I'm not responsible for it, and it's not mine. We have a different kind of relationship with our audience. It's a lot of fun to love a band that loves what it does and isn't afraid to show you that love."
OCMS' love of traditional music is expressed in its wide-ranging choice of material and the band members' own impeccable songwriting.
"There's still stuff I'm saving for a rainy day," Secor reveals of his own songwriting process. "If we decided not to play a song we've written, it will probably come up in the house mix. That's when you'll hear many songs that were somehow deemed unfit."
OCMS collectively draw heavily from the influence of the greatest songwriters in the history of American music. In other words, OCMS keeps good company with people like Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and a whole lot of older performers who you've never heard of, yet remain idols to Secor.
"Some of the music of the '20s contains the most excitement," he observes. "It's just really rocking and mysterious. These ideas that are so heavy in indie-rock today were around for black musicians and hillbillies in yesterday's music. It used to be the blues didn't distinguish between color, or black and white. It was just powerful music."
When you see OCMS play live, you'll notice the band's diverse audience; the music appeals to many different generations and different crowds. You'll find yourself asking, "Why are there no more lush harmonies involving male voices on the radio anymore?"
"Today's country-music voices sound digitized for the new era--you know, to fit in with the other appliances," says Secor. "You'll hear us and remember that the biggest record 30 years ago was by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Today, everything is in the way of a band that sounds like CS&N. Look at black music, too: It's only about playing to the masses now, which is the most important thing going in American music. To see a popular art form reduced to what it is now is sad. It's not nearly as exciting as it once was."
Of course, today's pop music will still be around 30 years from now, if only to sell cars, bras and aftershave.
"A song is very valuable," Secor suggests. "It doesn't have to be good--that's how important it is. Anything any of today's artists have done is a pale shadow of what was done better by others who have come before. Pop culture continues to distort everything. Elvis was maybe the only one who arrived at a time when an audience was ready for something different. Now, music is something you point and click at on the computer."
Living in the South has been good for a Northerner like Secor. The South is where a lot of his band's music comes from and, as he notes, it's good to be in a place that reminds you of what inspired so much of the old-time music.
"To experience that makes it easier to perform songs about the downtrodden and people who rely on the weather to feed their animals," he says. "It's good to be in a place that reminds you of why you play."
Old Crow Medicine Show
8 p.m., Monday, Nov. 12
Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St.
$21, all ages
740-1000 |
Last edited by kg on Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. --Phil Ochs |
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| DeanRogers |
| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:38 pm |
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Charlie
Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 896
Location: Ocean City, MD
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kg wrote:
PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 8, 2007:
Did you happen to get tomorrows lotto numbers with that time machine you got.  Good find sir. |
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| kg |
| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 7:20 pm |
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*Data Miner*
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 3427
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Considering my recent confusion as to what day it really was--I was looking at the wrong November in the Farmer's Almanac--I felt funny about this one. I guess the print edition goes out tomorrow?
Did you see that the boys are recording in California? Do you think so? |
_________________
Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. --Phil Ochs |
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| pittsyltucky |
| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 7:48 pm |
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*Johnny*
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 4268
Location: Pigg River District, Pittsylvania County, Virginia
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| I think they may have been back in late Aug/Sept... And this next one will be their "third" album. |
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| BrownEyesBlue |
| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:13 pm |
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Old Crow
Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Posts: 376
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Reading the title of this thread made me dizzy. Freaky shit indeed, kg.  |
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| kg |
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:53 am |
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*Data Miner*
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 3427
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http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/aznightbuzz/210237.php
Medicine men: That old-timey sound
By Gerald M. Gay
ggay@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.08.2007
The last time the Old Crow Medicine Show performed in Southern Arizona, the Tucson area looked like Dante's Inferno with the Aspen Fire raging through sections of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
"It was very much like flying into hell and then landing in like ashy, sooty Tucson," fiddler Ketch Secor said about the 2003 fire in a recent phone interview. The band was playing with Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart, Rhonda Vincent and others as part of the Electric Barnyard Tour in Sierra Vista. "It smelled like a big barbecue that nobody wanted an invite to."
Old Crow returns to Arizona and makes its Tucson debut at the Rialto Theatre on Monday in what some might consider a visit long overdue for the roots-music quintet.
The band has performed its own blend of classic, old-timey material and acoustic originals for nearly a decade without a single stop through the Old Pueblo.
How was touring with Merle Haggard? "We did about eight dates on a tour that was scheduled to go all summer long, but they lost so much money on those eight dates that they had to pull the plug on it and us. We didn't get the whole summer with Merle, but we got a little piece of it and it was some of the most merriment that I've had out there on the highways. It was a great tour for us. We got to know him a little bit. That guy is just amazing."
Your last album came out in 2006. Are you bringing anything new to Tucson? "We have a forthcoming album that is going to be awesome. In the meantime, we are still selling our latest. 'Big Iron World' has been out 15 months now, so we are not really coming to Tucson to talk about a new album. We are coming to fill seats in that beautiful music hall and to tell the people of Tucson that there is a stringband of young kids who are really excited about the music they've been blessed and honored to carry forth. That there is music being made that has put a new face on an old family friend."
What can we expect from your Tucson debut? "We tend to really pack a wallop for people who haven't seen us before, so we sort of have to be on our best behavior. My understanding of the short time I spent in Tucson is that there is a real vital music scene in that city and a lot of young people making it happen. I am excited to go check that out.
"We have mutual friends down there. Among them, a man named Teddy Morgan. When we used to work with Junior Brown, a lot of the guys who played with him were from Arizona and the bassist was from Tucson. We've gotten to know some players down there, and it seems like everything I've heard says that Tucson is quite poised to be one of the great musical cities of the near future." |
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Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. --Phil Ochs |
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| DeanRogers |
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:50 am |
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Charlie
Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 896
Location: Ocean City, MD
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kg wrote: "That there is music being made that has put a new face on an old family friend."
AMEN |
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| kg |
| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:26 am |
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*Data Miner*
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| kg |
| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:31 pm |
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*Data Miner*
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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From: http://kolakoski.com/kolog/?p=661
New Old-Time Medicine
Old Crow Medicine Show, based out of Nashville, Tennessee, made their Tucson debut tonight at the Rialto Theatre, appropriately situated downtown across the street from the historic train depot. From old favorites such as “That’ll Be The Day,” “Big Time In The Jungle” and “Tear It Down” to the more recently penned “I Hear Them All” and a new tune written “on the back of the bus a few days ago,” OCMS spanned their catalog this evening, rocking the crowd like a wagon wheel rolling down a bumpy country road or, better yet, a freight train barreling across this big iron world.
Were it not cliché, I would say they’re just what the doctor ordered. You see, I’ve been struggling mightily with the (apparently imminent) passing of my brother-in-law. And while I can rationalize the situation by telling myself that death is a beautifully natural event—nothing more than the cycle of life, which I love so much—I can’t stop the tears. I can’t even begin to pinpoint where the tears come from these days (moments of joy unlock the floodgates as easily as any other). All I know is that the pain remains, and while I’d like to wish it away, I neither can nor, as I realized tonight, should. For if you listen closely, the boys in OCMS don’t take away the blues, which are aplenty, as much as they provide a means of confronting and coping with the various trials and troubles of life—serving as a sonic elixir that makes it difficult to do anything but smile, dance, sing and remember. |
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Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. --Phil Ochs |
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| kg |
| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:37 pm |
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*Data Miner*
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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Who is that?
More photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamber/ |
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Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. --Phil Ochs |
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| gwrap |
| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:43 pm |
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Charlie
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 925
Location: Stankonia, GA
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Wow, Kinman made it out to Tucson. |
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When you wake up you're all weak
Throwing your life away
Someday, sorry coming home
Sorry snail
Down in my heart |
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| kg |
| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:59 pm |
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*Data Miner*
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 3427
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| I thought so! (But didn't believe it.) |
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Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. --Phil Ochs |
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| therodge |
| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 5:34 pm |
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*Law Dog*
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Posts: 6602
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
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Holy SHI'ATE Muslim!!!! That is awesome that he is guest'n more! Dang, wish I could have been there to hear it... Matt Kinman is known around the Old Time scene to be the best at ALL instruments.
****************************
Hey, that sweet lady named Nana emailed me again,
Here is what she wrote...
Hi! I'm the old nurse from Arizona (still working...12-hour shifts in a prison these days, but they let me out for the OCMS!)...just a quick note on the 2 shows (mostly my personal views; I am NOT a musician).... (I skipped Phoenix bacause the venue wasn't in a Sr. Citizen-friendly part of town.)
In Flagstaff, I was too stunned by Gil Landry's big turquoise-and-gold ring -- so very Vegas & so very un-Crow! -- to listen to his music at first, but then realized he's great (he wouldn't be playing with this band otherwise, I'm sure.) Sure missed Critter, though! "Methamphetamine" got a lousy audience response at both shows...people barely clapped & didn't do that for long. I think it was because the song hit them so hard, not because they didn't like it. It is less intellectual, much more edge-y & powerful, than "I Hear Them All." It had better be on The Next Album!
Kevin actually smiled twice during the Tucson show!!!! And when Ketch introduced him as "an old desert rat" in Flagstaff, he bared his upper front teeth & made a face like a rodent...lasted about 3 seconds max, but was hilarious to see! And Willie said "the F word" pretty loudly at one point (I think it was when he couldn't find a pick) and then he grinned at Ketch & said "OOOps! I'm not supposed to say that on stage!" It was a real hoot.
Thanks for letting me share. Do you know when that album will be out????? |
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| gwrap |
| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:04 pm |
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Charlie
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 925
Location: Stankonia, GA
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therodge wrote: Holy SHI'ATE Muslim!!!! That is awesome that he is guest'n more! Dang, wish I could have been there to hear it... Matt Kinman is known around the Old Time scene to be the best at ALL instruments.
Rodge, maybe you and Libby tipped Fate's hand and got Kinman back into the mix. If you and Libby hadn't got to talking to Willie out in front of Jack's maybe Kinman wouldn't have ended up running into Willie... |
_________________
When you wake up you're all weak
Throwing your life away
Someday, sorry coming home
Sorry snail
Down in my heart |
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| pittsyltucky |
| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:42 pm |
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*Johnny*
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 4268
Location: Pigg River District, Pittsylvania County, Virginia
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| I hope ol' Charlie comes back full-time. Whatever happened in the past be damned, I still say my favorite stuff to listen to is from them days. |
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| Kitty |
| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 7:37 pm |
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*Mrs. Kitty*
Joined: 23 Oct 2006
Posts: 2344
Location: Durham, NC
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therodge wrote:
Hey, that sweet lady named Nana emailed me again,
Aaahhh Rodge, that is so sweet! You should send her a shirt jsut for being so kewl! |
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| jkorp |
| Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:36 am |
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Charlie
Joined: 22 Feb 2007
Posts: 976
Location: The Right Coast
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pittsyltucky wrote: I hope ol' Charlie comes back full-time. Whatever happened in the past be damned, I still say my favorite stuff to listen to is from them days.
I agree with you on that man. I hope he's sticking around. |
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Ich liebe meinen Speck!! |
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| kg |
| Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:25 am |
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*Data Miner*
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| bopanic |
| Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:22 pm |
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*King of da Vuld*
Joined: 04 Dec 2005
Posts: 4190
Location: Nashville, TN
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gwrap wrote: Wow, Kinman made it out to Tucson.
the man can play with the best of em and buck dance, lets keep em around! |
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