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Old Crow Medicine Show Bio
Old Crow Medicine Show was born 1998 when a group of young, old-time string musicians left Ithaca, NY for Canada, with the aim of playing their way to the Pacific coast. They brought their pawnshop fiddles and banjos, guitars and washboards to downtown street corners across Ontario, to paper mill towns above Lake Superior, farmers markets in Manitoba, Indian reservations in South Dakota, and out to the streets of Vancouver and Victoria, Seattle and Portland.
Along the way, they discovered a unique country sound— both old and new, foreign and familiar and knew they had captured something special. After recrossing the country, the band found itself settling in the mountains of North Carolina, living as a collective, immersed in the richness of Appalachia. After a chance encounter in Boone, NC with flat pick legend Doc Watson they were invited to Merlefest where they caught the attention of Nashville, and moved there in 2000. The band built a following around their string band revival sound, finding a growing legion of fans hungry for roots music and capturing the hearts of acclaimed artists like John Prine, Gillian Welch, and Marty Stuart who helped propel their music.
They found early exposure from both Garrison Keillor and Conan O’Brian who helped fan the flames they’d been lighting across the country with a relentless touring schedule of club dates and opening slots for artists from Ricky Skaggs to Loretta Lynn to Dave Matthews Band to Willie Nelson. Band members came and went over the years, and in April 2022, they released the critically acclaimed Paint This Town, their first album of all original material in five years. 2023 celebrated Old Crow Medicine Show’s first quarter century together and the release their latest album, Jubilee, recorded in late 2021 and 2022.
In 26 years of making live music together, Old Crow Medicine Show has established itself as America’s most beloved Old-Time String Band and one of Nashville’s most revered musical torchbearers. Their song Wagon Wheel is one of the most widely sung folk songs in history and was recently certified by RIAA as one of the top five country singles of all time.