Old Crow Medicine Show
Remedy
(ATO Records)
★★★★ (out of five)
AWARD-WINNING country/ folk/ roots band Old Crow Medicine Show are back with their eighth album of cracking songs.
Having sold more than 800,000 albums and toured the world, the group are perhaps best known for their million-selling hit, Wagon Wheel, which has been covered by Mumford & Sons and Nathan Carter and is an audience favourite in their live shows.
The group started out busking on the street corners in New York and up through Canada but got their break when they were spotted busking outside a pharmacy in the North Carolina town of Boone (named after the famous American pioneer Daniel Boone) by the daughter of the late great singer-songwriter “Doc” Watson.
She got her dad to listen and he invited them to play on his MerleFest – an annual festival named after Doc’s son Eddy Merle Watson who died in a tractor accident in 1985.
The new album kicks off with the punchy driving bluesy, Brushy Mountain Conjugal Trailer, and follows with the blistering bluegrass, 8 Dogs & 8 Banjos.
Sweet Amarillo is a cowboy waltz and Dearly Departed Friend and Firewater are classic country songs. Brave Boys is a ripping hoedown track and Tennessee Bound is a fast fiddle-led song, but they saved the most memorable track The Warden to close the album – a great track with thoughtful lyrics.
Terrific energy, tight harmonies, fiery fiddle, banjo and harmonica, plus solid rhythm and great production of super material make this a smashing album.
Old Crow Medicine Show will be in Britain and Ireland for some dates in October so watch out for them. This album should pave the way nicely and I can see them being a popular guest act on television shows.
