At some point in the early 90s I discovered a drawer in my parents house full of battered old cassette tapes from where I unearthed the talents of Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly and a host of other acts. One of those artists was Neil Diamond and while side one of whatever particular record bored me to tears, side two ended with ‘Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show’. The pounding rhythms, soaring brass section and growled vocals brought out a never before heard passion from the little tape deck, asking questions of everything I’d previously listened to and asking what the hell a travelling salvation show was anyway. Fast forward twenty something years and all has been answered. Old Crow Medicine Show and Parker Millsap have brought the show to town.
Millsap has opened on occasion for the Medicine Show. He’s all energy and pseudo-religious fervour. Old music like ‘Old Time Religion’ hark back to the themes of Cash and his Tennessee Two but there’s more to this twenty one year old star-in-the-making than meets the eye. Contemporary themes abound, thinly veiled behind an outwardly apparent homage to Sam Phillips’ Sun Records. With Jerry Lee Lewis hair, the Buddy Holly intonation and the hip thrusts of a young Presley it’s a tour de force through more than forty years of country rock and roll. ‘Truck Stop Gospel’ is Millsap’s biggest hit to date, receives rapturous applause and rightfully so.
There’s Guinness tonight in lieu of communion wine and road to Damascus moments on the way to the merch table as the strains of Old Crow Medicine Show’s old time string section beckon us forth like an altar call to be answered.
Old Crow have set off apace with ‘Brushy Mountain Conjugal Trailer’ and Alabama High Test. They’re a well travelled band and if our interview with Critter Fuqua taught us nothing else, it taught us of their respect for the songs of old Ireland. ‘Caroline’ is revealed to be a Derry girl and the crowd roars en-masse at being referred to as a “whole lotta hillbillies”. For it’s mostly true. We’ve all been brought up to an extent on country tunes and there’s facial hair and plaid as far as the eye can see.
Ketch Secor asks us to don our dancing shoes and is obliged for a straight up run through of ‘Bootlegger’s Boy’. These songs have Ireland running through their veins with their whiskey references and relentless fiddle work. It’s more than lip-service as the band make mention of far flung parts of the province of Ulster and more than leg service as Chance McCoy breaks into an Irish jig. The entire show’s performed at breakneck speed and the slower section might just be for the benefit of the sweaty out of breath audience as much as the band. ‘Sweet Home’, ‘Take ‘Em Away’ and ‘Cumberland River’ rack up a mean hat-trick of mid-tempo tunes to tap a toe to.
The intro to ‘Sweet Amarillo’ whips some of the crowd into a frenzy as they expect that other Bob Dylan co-write but there’s plenty of time for that and plenty of time for the band to duke it out on stage, swapping lead vocals and instruments with ease. Gil Landry takes us on a tour of ‘Mary’s Kitchen’ before Secor steals the show once again with virtuoso blues harp. That man works a harmonica like Hendrix works a six-string. If this is indeed a travelling salvation show then Secor is the firebrand preacher and he’s hurling hellfire and brimstone tonight.
The hits keep on coming with ‘Big Time In The Jungle’, ‘CC Rider’ and a spirited cover of ‘The Holy Ground’ with the gathered masses bellowing out the “fine girl you are”s. We’re all part of the Old Crow Medicine Show family tonight and as the band gather round a solitary microphone for a cover of Willie Dixon’s ‘Tell That Woman’ and a stunningly hushed ‘The Warden’ it feels like pulling up a comfy chair by the fireside. Whilst the old time country music and the traditional Irish tunes are clearly the influences on this band there’s time for some lyrics about cocaine, that other song co-written with Bob Dylan and a Beatles cover before Millsap rejoins the seven-piece for a raucous ‘Into The Mystic’ in Morrison’s home town. It’s experiential, it’s emotional, and by the end it’s somewhat preaching to the converted.
Can we get an amen!?