One of the most popular bluegrass acts in the world, Old Crow Medicine Show have been releasing fine music for a little over a decade and a half. Their brand of old styled folk songs has captivated audiences around the world, playing many festivals including Newport Folk and Bonnaroo.
Their latest record, Remedy, was released last week, and it’s a great blend of all the reasons why Old Crow are deservedly popular. The album starts out strong, and just gets stronger, the fun bluegrass banger, “Brushy Mountain Conjugal Trailer” sets the tone, before getting into the fantastic “8 Dogs 8 Banjos” which I feel is going to be a great singalong live show staple. I love the track “Mean Enough World”, it’s got a little bit of a punk rock lyrical style to it, and I really feel the message, be nice to each other, because if you’re a jerk, “It’s an already mean enough world without you”. Another track I really like is “Dearly Departed Friend”. It’s a sad, but beautiful look at Americana, lyrically it’s about the loss of a friend, and it paints a picture of American life. The pace is picked back up on “Brave Boys” which starts out with a fiddle explosion, and that frantic pace doesn’t slow down until the final track “The Warden”. The first single off of the record, “Sweet Amarillo” was apparently a Bob Dylan song that Dylan passed onto Old Crow.
Old Crow is a reliable band to listen to, if you like them you’ll like Remedy, they’re not going to throw in Omnichord or synths anytime soon, and that may draw some criticism as being “predictable”, but I really like what they’ve done here without Willie Watson. Watson leaving Old Crow was pretty significant, he was one of the founding members, but Remedy shows the remaining members can still put together a fine album.
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