Old Crow Medicine Show: Union Made
For nearly 30 years, Old Crow Medicine Show have all but defined what we consider modern “americana”—part folk storytelling, part bluegrass, part old-timey mountain music. But they’ve never made an album that set the home of those genres quite so squarely as its focus. Union Made, the band says, is meant to celebrate and reflect on the United States of America on the brink of the nation’s 250th birthday. Musically, it’s an easy win: Union Made has all the stacked harmonies, furious picking and sing-along choruses you’d expect from Old Crow. Thematically, though, Union Made can feel a bit one-dimensional—all celebration and very little honest reflection on the real state of the Union itself.
Union Made begins with “Howdy Do America,” a bouncing, joyful ode to traveling around this gorgeous country, visiting state after state with one important destination: “Now my thumbs out, heading south/ Bumming me a ride/ Gotta make it home to see my newborn child/She was born on the morning of the 4th of July,” sings Ketch Secor. OCMS’s PJ George and modern folk icon Jesse Welles add playful harmonies. Other marquee-named guests pop in throughout—the solemn, beautiful bluegrass of “My Side of the Mountain” was crafted with Molly Tuttle and country star Luke Combs, and features Tuttle, Del and Ronnie McCoury on vocals. It’ll be a showstopper live. On “Yall All Come,” featuring John Carter and Ana Christina Cash, OCMS wade into lyrical territory that brushes past the real oppression and fear many Americans currently experience. “If you’d kindly unite with y’all’s next door neighbor, ‘cause y’all work the same check/ Y’all drink the same beer, y’all love the same mama,” Secor sings. It’s a sentiment we should all try to embrace, even during these divisive times.
