Old Crow Medicine Show Signs to Columbia – To Release ‘Blonde on Blonde’ Tribute

For those of you thinking the old school throwback string band Old Crow Medicine Show may be starting to show signs of slowing down since they’ve been around for darn near 20-something years, apparently one of Nashville’s biggest labels disagrees. Announced Tuesday morning (2-21), Old Crow Medicine Show has signed with Columbia Records Nashville. Put this on top of being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2013, and the band isn’t showing signs of age, they’re solidifying their place as a serious traditional roots band with mainstream and major label acceptance.

On the heels of recently releasing a Greatest Hits album for their years on the independent ATO Records, Old Crow Medicine Show will release a live album comprised of their concert at the Country Music Hall of Fame in May of 2016 when they covered the entirety of Bob Dylan’s classic record Blond on Blonde from 1966 in celebration of the 50 year anniversary. The new Old Crow album entitled 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde will be released on April 28th, and will be available for pre-order on February 24th.

“Fifty years is a long time for a place like Nashville, Tennessee. Time rolls on slowly around here like flotsam and jetsam in the muddy Cumberland River,” says Old Crow Medicine Show frontman Ketch Secor. “But certain things have accelerated the pace of our city. And certain people have sent the hands of the clock spinning. Bob Dylan is the greatest of these time-bending, paradigm-shifting Nashville cats.”

Currently the main exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame celebrates Bob Dylan’s time in Nashville, as well as the other “Nashville Cats” of the mid and late 60’s.

“By deciding to record his newly found rock n’ roll voice in 1966 Nashville, Bob swung the gates of country music wide open; so wide, in fact, that 50 years later there was still enough of a crack left for Old Crow Medicine Show to sneak its banjos and fiddles through the gates with string band swagger.”

Old Crow Medicine Show’s last original album Remedy won the Grammy for Best Folk Album in 2015. No news on when a new original album from Columbia may be released, but rest assured the label sees value in hedging their bets with a band that you’ll never find on country radio, but has an incredible following among dedicated independent and traditional country fans.