www.montereycountyweekly.com october 5-11, 2023 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 25 school paper helped me a lot with writing lyrics,” he says about his college times, when he was entertaining the idea of working in the media industry. But being a journalist wasn’t in the stars for him, and when you listen to his deep voice and raw emotions, there isn’t a doubt that this man belongs on stage. The band seems to be in the sweet spot of a moment in their career—way too big for a bar in Austin, and just about to embark on a tour that will take their Americana for a string of concerts abroad. “My voice changed a lot,” Smith says about how his sound has evolved since those early days of singing up to eight hours a night. “I was under a lot of stress when I used to sing in Austin. I had scar tissue, my voice changed, got deeper and lower. That’s the biggest difference. Now I have a different, longer spectrum.” Old Crow Medicine Show knows all about changes; the band has been around for 25 years now. Originally spotted while busking outside a pharmacy in Boone, North Carolina, the band was discovered by a local musician who invited them to a music festival. Then they got hired as a band to entertain crowds between shows at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. A decade-and-a-half later, the band received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for their fifth studio album, Remedy. In addition to original songs, they play pre-WWII blues and folk and are credited for the energy picked up later by younger groups, such as Mumford & Sons. Ketch Secor, who was there from the beginning in late 1998, described OCMS as “old-time string band musicians, most of us still in our teens, who left Ithaca, New York to cross the Canadian border and play our way to the Pacific.” After re-crossing the continent they decided on moving to the mountains of North Carolina to further explore their “newfound musical farrago.” Current members include Secor (fiddle, harmonica, guitar, banjo, vocals), Morgan Jahnig (upright bass), Mike Harris (slide guitar, guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro, guitjo, vocals), Mason Via (guitar, guitjo, mandolin, vocals), Dante’ Pope (drums, percussion, piano, vocals), PJ George (banjo, accordion, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, guitjo, drums) and Cory Younts (mandolin, keyboards, banjo, harmonica, vocals), who spoke on behalf of the band before the Rebels & Renegades festival. Younts joined OCMS in 2009, when the band had already built a big following and become known for its string band revival sound. Since then, OCMS began fusing more and more rock ‘n’ roll elements, further intensifying the live show experience. The band’s performance at Rebels & Renegades will include expected crowd pleasers, such as “James River Blues” or “Down Home Girl,” as well as new material. In April 2022, the group released Paint This Town, their first album of original material in five years, followed by Jubilee (2023) with 13 brand-new songs. “Sometimes we get bored with songs and a handful of them get retired,” Younts says. “But it’s all about the crowd and what they want. We would stop playing a song for a while and then approach it differently, in a new way.” One of the most interesting tracks on the new album is “One Drop,” which features an iconic R&B vocalist Mavis Staples. Another song, “Allegheny Lullaby,” is a song about poverty of rural America and the people of Appalachia, Secor said in a 2023 interview for NPR’s “Here & Now,” adding the band is not afraid to write about tough issues like the opioid crisis. Rebels and Renegades Friday, Oct. 6-Sunday, Oct. 8. (Old Crow Medicine Show plays Friday, Oct. 6 and Shane Smith & the Saints play Sunday, Oct. 8.) Monterey County Fair and Event Center, 2004 Fairground Road, Monterey. $175-$500. rebelsandrenegadesfest.com. Top: Old Crow Medicine Show, a string band that has been around since 1998, will make its Rebels & Renegades debut this year. Middle: Shane Smith (left) and Bennett Brown (right) of Shane Smith & The Saints rocking the crowds in 2022. Below: Shane Smith & The Saints had a blast during the first Rebels & Renegades last year, Smith says. The band’s sound is perfect for a festival that celebrates folk music played with rebellious attitude. PROPIXMEDIALIVE PROPIXMEDIALIVE Joshua Black Wilkins
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