As The Crow Flies
Last night the Old Crow Medicine Show took the roof off the Paradise Performing Arts Center. Steve Schuman of North Valley Productions is to be commended for bringing these guys to town and, notwithstanding some logistical latency in processing the many will call orders, putting on a great show.
These guys are some kind of string band demons. They bring a phenomenal energy to their show, and you can't help but get jacked up by them. They are clearly very well rehearsed and prepared, and still love what they do. That's a hard combination to sustain, but I think the depth of their preparation is one of the reasons they can love doing it, because it's the only way to get it done the way these guys do it.
And the audience obviously loved them doing it. From the second song the front of the theater was packed with dancers. It was not a sophisticated step; it was mostly jumping up and down and flailing while shouting "wahoo".
The lady in the next seat asked me if I was a "fan of bluegrass", which puzzled me. While these guys play traditional string instruments like banjos and fiddles and dobros, they don't play bluegrass as such. This is a far older and yet recently updated folk music form. It's kind of like "country" music before it got bolted onto "western" and became a radio format ruled by Nashville. It's the sort of music neighbors would play together on the porch in rural communities on a Saturday evening because the only way they were going to get to hear any was if they made their own. A lot of OCMS' music is original, but is faithfully derived from a traditional convention.
None of these guys are going to win any awards for instrumental virtuosity. Indeed, they were all playing, to one degree or another, a stringed version of a drum. All of them played primarily rhythm figures, and when you've got five guys playing the beat, it's impressive in itself that they are as synched up as they are.
Their signature sound is their singing. They sing in close, stressed harmonies, with a "high lonesome" sound typically associated with hill country. What these guys do that is so impressive is the way they animate their performances to such a frenetic degree.
I was reminded of two other groups from the past. In a lot of ways, they resemble the Kingston Trio back in their heyday. The Kingston Trio's instrumentation varied, but was based around an upright bass, guitar, and banjo combination. And while the OCMS guys changed instruments almost as often as Brittany Spears changes costumes, all their tunes included this same fundamental rhythm section. Old Crow also leaned heavily on fiddle, harmonica, and dobro, as well, but these were the coloratura voices; the main engine was bass/guitar/banjo. The vocal ensemble in OCMS is a trio, as well. Go back and listen to Kingston Trio recordings of "Ain't It Hard", "Greenback Dollar", "New York Girls", "Little Maggie", "Shady Grove/Lonesome Traveler", and you'll hear strong similarities to the Old Crow repertoire.
The other act I was reminded of was The Band. Each of the members of Old Crow seemed to resemble in some way the members of The Band. The fiddle player reminded me very much of Levon Helm, while the other principal vocalist and guitarist was strikingly similar to Robbie Robertson. The third singer and dobro/banjo player had the sturdy build, gravitas, and hirsute demeanor of Garth Hudson, while the 6-string banjo player was as low-key and understated in expression as Richard Manuel. It's true that the only thing the remaining player had in common with Rick Danko was the bass, but hey, close enough for Americana, sezaxon.
One thing I found interesting was the 6-string banjo player. This is an unusual instrument; it uses guitar tuning over a banjo skin, and the chord voicings are different from typical 5-string frailing banjo progressions. And it's the one instrument that is played by the same musician on every single tune they do. The player doesn't sing, takes no solos, and is fairly unremarkable in terms of stage presence, but it can be argued that he's the core foundation of their instrumental identity. There's always a 5-string being played, and always a guitar, so his contribution might be considered redundant. In fact, I believe that he's their "secret sauce"; take him out of the mix, and it doesn't sound like Old Crow.
One last note; these guys are every bit as enjoyable on record as they are live. Their live presence is amazing in its dynamic energy, but you'll be up and dancing to the CDs as well.
