Concert Review: Old Crow Medicine Show

Sunday night I went to the Old Crow Medicine Show concert at the Casino Ballroom in Hampton and it was a blast. You may not like "country" but they are not redneck/right-winged/they took our jobs! country. It's actually more like "if you're not a right winger we'll all have a humdinger!"

The band, a 6 piece all-string folk-rock group out of Nashville, basically opened for themselves playing for about 45 minutes, then took a 15 minute break, came back out for another hour and a half and then played a three song encore. The encore included a terrific version of Neil Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand" which was quite a treat. During their "opening" set they played a few covers and mostly stuff off their older albums including "I Hear them All" "Minglewood Blues" and "James River Blues" and also played a couple newer songs like the crowd favorite "Humdinger."

Old Crow played more of their hits during their main set, including the crowd pleaser and one of my personal favorites "Alabama High Test." (below) It was great to see the crowd singing along with the lyrics to that one. "Other songs the band played included "Next Go 'Round" "Caroline" "Down Home Girl" "CC Rider" "Highway Halo" "Mary's Kitchen" and many others I can't think of or don't know the name of.

Toward the end of the set the band finally played their biggest hit "Wagon Wheel" and all 2,000+ in attendance joined in on the lyrics. Especially the lines "running from the cold up in New England"and  "had a nice long toke!" With every verse the crowd got louder and it was by far the best sing-along I've ever been apart of. They followed up "Wagon Wheel" with their final song of the set with the cocaine themed "Tell it to Me" (below) and each band member took a small solo as they introduced one another. As the band left the stage the entire crowd was already calling (more like stamping and screaming) for an encore.

The band reappeared and played "Cowgirl in the Sand" which got a great reaction from the audience. They played two other songs including "Fall on My Knees."

In sum, Old Crow Medicine Show was one goddamn hell-of-a show! They are very talented musicians and writers and they really know how to perform live. I will definitely see them when they come around again.