In 2000, legendary bluegrass musician Doc Watson discovered Old Crow Medicine Show busking outside a pharmacy in Boone, North Carolina. Since then, the Americana string band based in Nashville, Tennessee, has taken its Grammy Award-winning old-time, folk, and alternative country (infused with rock energy) all around the world. On a steamy-hot night in New York City, Old Crow Medicine Show brought its lively show to the Rooftop at Pier 17 under threatening skies.
Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway opened the evening with a contemporary bluegrass set. Playing guitar since she was eight years old, Tuttle is now a 31-year-old master of the flatpicking, clawhammer, and crosspicking guitar techniques. In the past year, Tuttle won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album and the International Bluegrass Music Awards for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Female Vocalist of the Year. Although she has recorded original since 2017, Tuttle now appears to be the hottest female act in bluegrass.
Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show co-wrote songs on City of Gold, Tuttle’s fourth and most recent studio album, released on July 21, 2023. This connection may have led to Tuttle opening for Old Crow Medicine Show.
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway / Photos by Everynight Charley
Playing to her largest-ever New York City audience on an outdoor stage amid views of the Brooklyn Bridge, the East River, and the Statue of Liberty, Tuttle converted the Financial District rooftop into a backwoods jamboree. Accompanied by Golden Highway, consisting of Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle, harmony vocals), Dominick Leslie (mandolin), Shelby Means (bass, harmony vocals), and Kyle Tuttle (banjo, harmony vocals), the recent Grammy winner led a high-energy charge with her guitar prowess and sweet vocals. The musicians often took turns displaying their speedy instrumental chops, while cautiously restraining to avoid an overload into jam grass territory. (She and Keith-Hynes would be back on stage later with Old Crow Medicine Show.)
Old Crow Medicine Show achieved platinum status with its 2004 recording of “Wagon Wheel,” a song in which band leader Ketch Secor added verses to an obscure Bob Dylan chorus. Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish had the biggest hit of his solo career when he covered the song for a new generation in 2013; no doubt the ubiquity of this song among Americana circles brought the crowds.
Nevertheless, Old Crow Medicine Show proved that the band is more than a one-hit wonder. Performing songs from several albums, the band performed a fast-moving set of rousing foot stompers with a heavy dose of country twang. The set included original songs and sparkling covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire,” and John Fogerty’s “Centerfield.”
The kinetic energy onstage was matchless in country music circles. As if riding a tornado, the musicians flew through the air with fiddles, banjos, guitars, and harmonicas in hand, swapping instruments and cowboy hats. They landed only to harmonize in perfect vocal synchronization.
On this tour, Old Crow Medicine Show welcomed back founding member Christopher “Critter” Fuqua, who had been in the band from 1998 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020. He fell back into place easily, joining in all the playful shenanigans onstage. Aside from the reunion of Secor and Fuqua, multi-instrumentalists Morgan Jahnig, Cory Younts, Mike Harris, Dante’ Pope, and PJ George rounded out the ranks.
Perhaps Old Crow Medicine Show’s tour was intended to promote the band’s eighth and most recent studio album, Jubilee, released on August 25, 2023. The band did not get a chance to play any songs from the album, however. Although the band planned to perform a two-hour concert, lightning crashing nearby caused the concert to be abbreviated after an hour. The musicians received notice that they had to end, so they hurriedly brought on stage Mary Tuttle and her band for a quick “Wagon Wheel,” and then the venue was evacuated for safety precautions. The audience got its money’s worth and hopefully got out of the seaport area before the drenching rains fell.
Old Crow Medicine Show / Photos by Everynight Charley
Setlist
- Tell It to Me ([traditional] cover)
- Alabama High-Test
- (Unknown)
- Proud Mary (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
- Carry Me Back To Virginia
- O Cumberland River
- Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise
- Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis cover)
- Take ‘Em Away
- Dixie Avenue
- A World Away
- Centerfield (John Fogerty cover)
- Paint This Town
- (Unknown)
- Boatman Dance
- (Unknown, with violin instrumental by Bronwyn Keith-Hynes of Mary Tuttle & Golden Highway)
- Wagon Wheel (with Molly Tuttle)
