Old Crow Comes To Salem Friday

Old Crow Medicine Show, a band whose music has been described as everything from bluegrass and old-timey to alternative country, will play a show Friday, Nov. 13 at the Salem Civic Center.

“I like to turn people on,” said Ketch Secor, from Old Crow Medicine Show. “I like to know that whatever they’ve been doing all week long, the music can shake them up. Music, it can really shake you to the bone.”

Ketch, the band’s fiddler and vocalist, said he is very excited to be playing in Salem. “Virginia is one of my favorite places to play,” Ketch, a Shenandoah Valley native, said. “I think that there are so many songs that we’ve written and sing that speak so directly to that place.”

The band will be on stage at the Salem Civic Center at 8 p.m. Old Crow Medicine Show will be playing favorites from their newly released concert DCD, "Live at the Orange Peel and Tennessee Theatre."

In discussing their first live concert DVD, Ketch explained, “It was fun to be in front of cameras. But the

cameras are just getting you and your audience. That’s where the communication goes on. That’s where your focus is.”

When it comes to being nervous before shows, especially for the filming, he explained, “As far as the mental nervousness goes, that’s something you shake with experience. But your body is always nervous. It’s like a horse before the race starts, it’s all jittery because it knows it’s about to run the distance. Because before a show you’re in some dimly lit hallway backstage or some puke-stained dressing room, and you know you’re about to go out there and shake it like a tornado.”

Ketch grew up in the Shenandoah Valley and has been singing ever since he was younger. He said there were many opportunities for him to sing as a kid, including outside of Sears at Valley View Mall, in Roanoke. When asked why they chose to mention Roanoke in their popular hit "Wagon Wheel," Ketch said, “Probably because I sang at the mall, and I had been at the bus station. I tried to rhyme something with Botetourt, but it didn’t work.”

While on the topic of the song "Wagon Wheel," Ketch said he doesn’t ever get sick of playing it. “It’s like having a home run in your pocket,” he said. “Whenever you need a real clutch hit, you’ve got that and can hit one over the fence with it.” The band will definitely be playing their “home run” that mentions Roanoke while they’re in town.

“I can’t wait to see them perform,” said Virginia Tech junior—and big fan of the band—Lindsay Boyd. “I’m so excited that they’ll be playing close enough to go see.”

Some of the craziest things they’ve seen happen while performing are girl fights. “It’s happened a couple times,” Ketch said with a laugh. “All kinds of crazy things can happen. People get carried away, but I like that. I want people to get carried away. Because that’s rock and roll.”