Old Crow Medicine Show – Kansas City
Few genres of music are more American than folk and, well, Americana. On Thursday night, two of the countries most popular bands, of this genre, performed to a sold out crowd at the Uptown Theater on Thursday night.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who won a Grammy in 2011 for Best Folk Album, opened the show and played a 30 minute set. Normally at concerts with multiple acts on the bill, the crowd doesn’t come in until the headliner is about to come on. If this was the case on Wednesday night, the number of stragglers could be counted on one hand.
Their music could best be described as good ol’ fashion fun, with the mouth harp, jug, dancer and a fiddle. I was once told that the difference between a violin and a fiddle was that nobody cries if beer is spilled on a fiddle. That’s the attitude that comes through with the sound; just a group of friends, having fun playing music, and making others happy in the process.
After a short stage strike, Old Crow Medicine Show took the stage, and the crowd was electrified. Most famous for their hit, “Wagon Wheel,” which was inspired by an unfinished Bob Dylan track, Old Crow Medicine Show opened with Brushy Mountain Conjugal Trailer, off their new album, Remedy (which is currently in my car’s CD player); though a new track, the crowd was already intimately familiar with it, and they blew the roof off the Uptown on the first chord of the mouth harp.
The show was not marred by technical problems, though; as Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary once said at a concert: nothing is perfect in folk music, as he began returning his guitar onstage. The same event played out on Thursday night, which added to the charm, and made everything more intimate, like a friend playing his guitar in your living room.
Old Crow Medicine Show’s latest album is Remedy, and is available at your local record store, and the souvenir kiosk, when they play in your town.
http://www.crowmedicine.com/
http://www.carolinachocolatedrops.com/
