Old Crow Medicine Show

Bringing fresh vitality to vintage string band traditions during the new millennium, Old Crow Medicine Show delivered hillbilly tunes, bluegrass, blues, and folk laced with rock & roll drive. Their energetic reinterpretations helped define the Americana wave of the 2000s both sonically and thematically, bridging earlier eras to contemporary listeners through lively performances and calls. "Wagon Wheel," the ensemble's defining number, sat at this temporal intersection: sole constant member Ketch Secor—who has anchored every version of the group since its 1998 founding—constructed the track around a refrain Bob Dylan left behind in 1973. After Darius Rucker transformed "Wagon Wheel" into a major success in 2013, Old Crow Medicine Show ascended to roots-music prominence, securing a Grammy for Best Folk Album with 2014's Remedy. Thereafter the collective explored wider creative avenues on expansive releases such as Dave Cobb-produced Volunteer in 2017, the socially aware Paint This Town in 2022, and 2023's festive Jubilee.

Critter Fuqua (vocals/banjo/resonator guitar), Kevin Hayes (guitjo), Morgan Jahnig (upright bass), Ketch Secor (vocals/fiddle/harmonica/banjo), and Willie Watson (vocals/guitar/banjo)—each hailing from separate states—first convened in New York, took to the highways, performed for an appreciative Doc Watson outside a North Carolina drugstore, and quickly earned an invitation to the folk legend's Merlefest. Old Crow Medicine Show next settled in Nashville, where they soon appeared at the Grand Ole Opry and supported artists including Dolly Parton and the Del McCoury Band.

In 2003 the group joined Nettwerk America, started writing original material alongside the jug band classics and reels that formed their foundation, and entered the studio under the guidance of Gillian Welch's partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Old Crow Medicine Show's self-titled debut, tracked at RCA's historic Studio B (Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings) and Woodland Sound Studios (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), surfaced the next year. Their follow-up, Big Iron World, also helmed by Rawlings, arrived in August 2006. Switching production hands, they enlisted Don Was for 2008's Tennessee Pusher.

Ted Hutt oversaw Carry Me Back, issued four years afterward in 2012. During summer 2013 the now eight-piece band issued the three-song EP Carry Me Back to Old Virginia, containing the title cut, a fresh take on "Ain't It Enough," and a version of Alabama's "Dixieland Delight." Hutt returned for the 2014 album Remedy, a folk-steeped collection that earned the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album of the Year.

Old Crow Medicine Show kept touring through subsequent seasons and, in early 2017, issued the compilation The Best of Old Crow Medicine Show. Shortly after, they announced their Columbia Nashville signing. Their first project for the label, 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde, captured a complete performance of the classic Bob Dylan album at the Country Music Hall of Fame in May 2016 and reached stores in April 2017. Marking the band's twentieth anniversary, they cut their sixth studio album, 2018's Volunteer, at Nashville's renowned RCA Studio A with producer Dave Cobb; it entered Billboard's Bluegrass chart at number one and the country chart at number fourteen. In 2019 the group delivered the live set Live at the Ryman.

Critter Fuqua exited Old Crow Medicine Show early in 2020, leaving Ketch Secor as the sole remaining original founder. Secor rebuilt the roster the following year. By the April 2022 arrival of Paint This Town—an album co-produced by the band and Matt Ross-Spang (John Prine, Jason Isbell)—the lineup included bassist Morgan Jahnig, guitarist Cory Younts, drummer Jerry Pentecost, multi-instrumentalist Mike Harris, and multi-instrumentalist Mason Via.

Jubilee, released in 2023, again paired Old Crow Medicine Show with Matt Ross-Spang and included guest appearances from Mavis Staples and Sierra Ferrell plus co-founder Willie Watson. Once Jubilee sessions concluded, Pentecost accepted an invitation to join Bob Dylan's band and left on good terms; Dante' Pope took the drum chair. Around the same period, multi-instrumentalist PJ George became a member.