Entranced by ancient fiddle tunes, and Bob Dylan’s turn of phrase, Secor discovered, at an early age, the transformative power of song.
“Introducing the Beatles also had an enormous effect on me,” Secor told LDC.
“John Lennon is such a huge part of the force that encourages kids to gravitate towards music. Even beyond the grave he is a guiding light for young people who seek to use music as a vehicle for what they want to say.”
Secor always sensed that he had something to say but he didn’t know how to reconcile his exploration of traditional Appalachian sounds with his love of articulate rock & roll.
Then, in the fall of 1998 Old Crow Medicine Show fell together near Ithaca, New York, where Secor had relocated after high school. Secor and the other like minded musicians that comprise this outfit were all approximately 20 years old and completely open to adventure.
As Secor remembers it, his decidedly unorthodox ensemble promptly crossed the Canadian border and traversed the North Country for a solid three months.
“We started out playing street corners up there and just walking into joints. Nothing was pre-arranged. I guess in the beginning we were seeking that Woody Guthrie kind of wandering experience.”
Along the way OCMS fashioned its own brand of string band music and acquired a loyal following of fans and friends, not to mention a recording contract and a big push from Doc Watson.
Though they were embraced by traditionalists, Secor stresses one distinction worth considering. “Since our inception, we’ve never seen ourselves as a bluegrass unit,” he said. “More like a rock band with claw-hammer banjo skills.”
That might explain the group’s popularity at Bonnaroo and strong soundscan numbers.
This sort of self-identification also accounts for the band’s decision to employ the ever-eccentric Don Was to produce the latest OCMS project, Tennessee Pusher.
“Don intuitively gets what we are about,” Secor said. “He keeps equating us with the Rolling Stones because he sees us as coming from that same school. And in a way Mick and Keith were very present at these sessions because Don had made the last three Stones albums and was always sharing their stories and approaches to crafting songs.”
Like the Glimmer Twins, OCMS is well versed in the ways of the drug culture. In part, the illicit references that float around the OCMS repertoire are merely the continuation of a long trend in folk music.
“People have been singing about shooting up and shooting their spouses for centuries,” Secor wryly notes.
But such allusions also reveal the band’s affinity with the common man.
“I feel like ‘Methamphetamine,’ for instance, deals with social injustice,” Secor said. “It is about all of those numbing devices that take folks away from the harsh reality of life in the places where drinking water is blurry muck and the schools are terrible and the kids are totally full of inopportunity. The places where you can’t even grow a garden in your back yard and there’s just nothing to do. Obviously, anytime you have an epidemic, there’s so much more involved than the person who’s got the flame to the spoon.”
Over the course of ten years, five studio albums, and countless concerts there has emerged a certain populist appeal to Secor and his band-mates. Yet, as a rule, OCMS steers clear of party affiliation and political endorsements.
“We’ve never wanted to push any one ideology. Through song, we look at the universal longings of man. It doesn’t matter who’s in power if the people aren’t empowered. So, we might tell you to stick with the union but our lyrics aren’t gonna say vote for Barrack Obama or vote for John McCain, a good song wouldn’t ever do that.”
In the end, OCMS clings to the notion that musicians more than politicians are appointed to guide us through our collective hours of darkness.
“Good music can save you,” Secor concludes. “It saved me and it saved every member of the Old Crow Medicine Show.”
Get your shot of salvation when Old Crow Medicine Show shares the stage with the Felice Brothers Saturday October 11th at the Palace Theatre (625 S. 4th Street, 583-4555). All-ages seats for the 8p.m. performance range from $20-$30.
