Old Crow Medicine Show are from Nashville, but their fusion of old-time country, bluegrass, and folk sounds is far from the typical sound coming out of Music City. Their newest album, Remedy, promises more folk twang and foot-stomping melodies than ever before. Ahead of their visit to Maymont this Sunday, August 17th, the humble and talented Chris “Critter” Fuqua spoke with us to share his experiences with the band and his thoughts on their newest album.
Old Crow Medicine Show are from Nashville, but their fusion of old-time country, bluegrass, and folk sounds is far from the typical sound coming out of Music City. Their newest album, Remedy, promises more folk twang and foot-stomping melodies than ever before. Ahead of their visit to Maymont this Sunday, August 17th, the humble and talented Chris “Critter” Fuqua spoke with us to share his experiences with the band and his thoughts on their newest album.
Fuqua is one of the founding members of OCMS. He plays banjo, guitar, sings, and writes songs for the band, as well as occasionally playing drums and accordion. He and Ketch Secor, the group’s frontman, became friends in middle school and began playing music together. According to Fuqua, it was Secor that came up with the name of the band. “I’m not sure where he got it from. He came up with that name in ’98; it must have been kind of rolling around in his brain.” Fuqua also explained that the band name doesn’t have anything to do with Old Crow Kentucky bourbon. “Just a happy coincidence I guess,” he said, laughing.
Both Fuqua and Secor come from Harrisonburg, Virginia, but their talents were discovered while busking in front of a pharmacy one day after moving to Boone, North Carolina. “The band started in New York in ’98; Ketch and I moved up there from Harrisonburg and met [the rest of the band] on that long road trip,” Fuqua said. “Then [we] all moved to Boone, North Carolina, deciding we all still wanted to keep doing this thing. We were just kind of doing the mountain thing in Boone. We were busking one day and this lady comes up and says ‘you guys are really great, I’m going to go get my dad to come back and listen!’ We thought ‘okay’, we didn’t think too much of it. Then she comes back with Doc Watson.” The legendary country/bluegrass musician was apparently also impressed. “He listens to us and invites us onto the Merlefest stage!” said Fuqua.
This was the band’s breaking point into the world of music, and their music has spread quickly ever since, through touring, appearances at Bonaroo and other festivals, and appearing in a Grammy-winning documentary, Big Easy Express, with Mumford and Sons and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. At the time of Big Easy Express, Fuqua was on a hiatus from the band. “Technically I didn’t win a Grammy because I was not playing with the band at that time,” he said. “I took a break for about four or five years. I went to Texas and got sober and everything. But I saw the guys in Austin when they were playing that show. I went on stage, played a couple tunes with them, and sang with Marcus Mumford.”
These days, Old Crow Medicine Show are probably best known for their song “Wagon Wheel.” This song actually dates back to long before the beginning of Old Crow Medicine Show, when Fuqua and Secor were in school together. Both boys were huge fans of Bob Dylan, and when they heard a bootleg containing an unfinished Dylan song called “Rock Me Mama,” they had to finish it themselves. “Ketch finished ‘Rock Me Mama’ when we were like 17, so that was like a Secor/Dylan co-write,” said Fuqua.
The original Old Crow version of “Wagon Wheel” was released on their 2004 album, O.C.M.S. After a decade in which it “roll[ed] around the world,” as Fuqua put it, gaining tons of additional exposure when Darius Rucker’s 2013 cover version topped the Billboard country charts, Bob Dylan took notice. “His management sent our management a little scrap of a song, which was I believe part of the same outtakes that ‘Wagon Wheel’ was from. [It] was a late ’75 album called Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, which was a movie soundtrack that Dylan did,” Fuqua said. “Anyway, so they sent ‘Sweet Amarillo’, which was even more of a scrap of a song, 30 seconds or something. I helped out with the narrative a little bit and Ketch finished writing it, so there’s ‘Sweet Amarillo’, the new Dylan/Old Crow co-write.” This beguiling song, featuring a strong chorus that will stay stuck in your mind for days after you hear it, is featured on Remedy, alongside some equally memorable and powerful original tunes.
Where the new album is concerned, Fuqua is particularly excited to bring what the fans have grown to expect and love from OCMS–which the band comes up with by trying not to think about it too hard. “We don’t really go into [the studio] trying to make anything new or different, per se. It’s just how it comes out eventually after months of writing and arranging and stuff. It gets kind of a sound,” he says. Fuqua is happy about the sound that Remedy ended up with. “It’s a big album, it’s got a big sound. We’ve got some old-time stuff; we’ve got some big-sounding anthems like ‘Sweet Amarillo’… it’s good!”
As is the case with many musicians, Fuqua seems to feel that Old Crow Medicine Show is only getting better with age. “[Remedy] is definitely my favorite album that we’ve had. I had the most fun recording and writing for this one,” he said. “I think it’s a good mix. We’ve definitely grown as a band, spiritually and member-wise.” Fuqua also believes the band is stronger as a unit on this album than it’s ever been. “We were all really working together. It felt like a real team effort. It felt like a real… cohesive sort of effort.”
Even after almost 20 years of playing with Old Crow Medicine Show, Fuqua still enjoys the ins and outs of being in a band. When asked about how it felt to be on tour and playing his home state, he was eager. “We’re playing the Rockingham County Fair, which is always probably my favorite show of the year,” he said. “I grew up in Harrisonburg, I grew up going to the Rockingham Country Fair, and now I’m playing it. It’s really cool.” At the end of the day, though, being in a band is still work. “I like seeing the fans, but you know, it’s just like any other job. There are parts of it that are stressful, and there are parts of it that I enjoy. It’s just kind of a balance, you know?”
Catch Old Crow Medicine Show at Maymont this Sunday, August 17th, to enjoy the sounds that the band has to offer with their new album, Remedy, as well as all of your old favorites. Tickets are $32.50 in advance, $39 on the day of the show, and can be ordered HERE.
