Artist:     Old Crow Medicine Show

Album:     Volunteer

Label:     Columbia Nashville

Release Date:     04.20.18

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Watching Old Crow Medicine Show busk in front of the drug store at “his old corner” in Boone, North Carolina, the late folk legend Doc Watson was so impressed, he knew he had to introduce the boys to the world. And that he did, in 2000 at MerleFest, his acclaimed annual music gathering. The band of New Yorkers and Virginians now based in Nashville were on their way, but could never have foreseen then, during their mountain pilgrimage, that in the ensuing eighteen years they’d collaborate with Bob Dylan, earn a Grammy, and be honored members of the Grand Ole Opry. Or, maybe they could.

Original members Ketch Secor (fiddle, harmonica, banjo), Critter Fuqua (slide guitar, banjo), and Kevin Hayes (guitjo) surely had a dream. Combining their enormous talents with those of Chance McCoy (guitar, fiddle, banjo), Morgan Jahnig (upright bass), and Cory Younts (mandolin, keyboards, drums), they’ve delivered their sixth studio album, Volunteer. Down-home, worldly-wise, highly diverse, and thus breathtaking, its songs and music amount to an eleven out of eleven perfect set.

Old Crow Medicine Show are rightly regarded as groundbreaking in the Americana realm, but like any great band, clear echoes of influence and honor bounce around in their music. “Flicker and Shine” bursts forth with a message of togetherness amid an amalgam of speeding Appalachia and Irish punk. Noble sentiment continues with “A World Away,” a welcome beacon about immigrants. The music’s a world away there, too, akin to a Margaritaville band playing on a beach. “Child of the Mississippi” jangles with the blues, its point self-evident and its beat robust and proud. In “Look Away,” a sweeping, slightly Stones-y groove underscores the allure of the American South. At that, the band turn into stomping, gleeful hillbillies for “Shout Mountain Music.” Besides the array of instruments they play so skillfully, all but Jahnig sing, and they’re wonderful both individually, and together. Byrds-like harmony carries “Homecoming Party,” and in “Old Hickory,” we’re transported to the hills of upstate New York and the time when The Band hung there and sang with Dylan. Old Crow Medicine Show do that—they go back to good times. They also create new ones based on hope. Nothing at all wrong with that type of Volunteer.

—Tom Clarke