Monday, March 26, 2007
An Evening with Old Crow Medicine Show
Bluegrass music is one of the staples of Eastern Kentucky and of the mountain region, but while Hollywood is importing manufactured; cookie cutter music into our region, the people of the Mountains haven’t seen many of their talented exports take the center stage in the mainstream spotlight.
However one Nashville based band has seen their popularity grow into a cult status, receiving critical acclaim and being featured nationally for their down home bluegrass sound.
On Saturday March 24, those in attendance at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg got the opportunity to spend ‘An Evening with Old Crow Medicine Show’.
“It’s very exciting to see people come out to see a string band” said Catch, lead vocalist, fiddler and harmonica player for Old Crow. “It’s been a while I think since the youth has been excited by fiddles and banjos in the way their grandparents maybe were.”
“It’s really great to be these torch bearers in these hollers;” Catch continued “and I’m hoping that we can help other people pick up instruments to so that the music can sustain.”
“We did a couple of tunes that had bluegrass variations tonight but generally our music is all encompassing rather than a strict form” Catch says crediting the bands success to the fact they’ve been able to draw from a wide variety of musical styles. “We play blues, we play harmonica and I play old time fiddle with the drone strings… you tune it up the old time-y way.”
While giving the interview for this piece, you could tell that Catch was enthused to be able to fill the region in on some of the heritage of what we classify as bluegrass music, stating that its roots are far older than our mountain culture.
“You know the banjo: it came from Africa… It found its way to Earl Scruggs too but that’s a black instrument; you know they have pictures and hieroglyphics of a banjo at the pyramids of Giza so this thing goes way on back and it found its way to Eastern Kentucky for some reason.”
But Catch was quick to point out that it was truly the culture of the mountains that gives the bluegrass sound its appeal as it speaks to our native environment and harnesses the essence of being an Eastern Kentuckian.
“Some of the fiddle tunes from the hollers in this part of the world are more authentic than the music their playing in Scotland today; they’re even closer to that root and it’s really exciting to be in a place where the music speaks- speaks to the landscape, there’s a communication going on between the land and the songs.” Catch said before giving an example of this connection. “You sing a song like ‘Poor Man’, well that might as well be about Elkhorn City it could be about a dude standing in front of the Dollar General with nothing in his pockets.”
However one Nashville based band has seen their popularity grow into a cult status, receiving critical acclaim and being featured nationally for their down home bluegrass sound.
On Saturday March 24, those in attendance at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg got the opportunity to spend ‘An Evening with Old Crow Medicine Show’.
“It’s very exciting to see people come out to see a string band” said Catch, lead vocalist, fiddler and harmonica player for Old Crow. “It’s been a while I think since the youth has been excited by fiddles and banjos in the way their grandparents maybe were.”
“It’s really great to be these torch bearers in these hollers;” Catch continued “and I’m hoping that we can help other people pick up instruments to so that the music can sustain.”
“We did a couple of tunes that had bluegrass variations tonight but generally our music is all encompassing rather than a strict form” Catch says crediting the bands success to the fact they’ve been able to draw from a wide variety of musical styles. “We play blues, we play harmonica and I play old time fiddle with the drone strings… you tune it up the old time-y way.”
While giving the interview for this piece, you could tell that Catch was enthused to be able to fill the region in on some of the heritage of what we classify as bluegrass music, stating that its roots are far older than our mountain culture.
“You know the banjo: it came from Africa… It found its way to Earl Scruggs too but that’s a black instrument; you know they have pictures and hieroglyphics of a banjo at the pyramids of Giza so this thing goes way on back and it found its way to Eastern Kentucky for some reason.”
But Catch was quick to point out that it was truly the culture of the mountains that gives the bluegrass sound its appeal as it speaks to our native environment and harnesses the essence of being an Eastern Kentuckian.
“Some of the fiddle tunes from the hollers in this part of the world are more authentic than the music their playing in Scotland today; they’re even closer to that root and it’s really exciting to be in a place where the music speaks- speaks to the landscape, there’s a communication going on between the land and the songs.” Catch said before giving an example of this connection. “You sing a song like ‘Poor Man’, well that might as well be about Elkhorn City it could be about a dude standing in front of the Dollar General with nothing in his pockets.”
# posted by Justin Mullins @ 3:42 PM 
