'Paint This Town': Old Crow Medicine Show to rock Marshfield's Levitate Music Festival

There probably aren’t many graduates of New Hampshire’s tony prep school Phillips Exeter Academy who make their living playing fiddle, banjo and harmonica. Ironically, it was at Phillips Exeter that Ketch Secor put the finishing touches on what would become his band’s biggest hit, “Wagon Wheel.”

Secor is the frontman for the Old Crow Medicine Show, the sextet that headlines the Friday, July 8, edition of the Levitate Music and Arts Festival at the Marshfield Fairgrounds.  Old Crow Medicine Show is scheduled to perform from 6:40 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday.

The Friday lineup also features reggae scion Stephen Marley, Michigan funk quartet Vulfpec and Boston’s own GA-20. Saturday offers Phil Lesh, Umphrey’s McGee, Durand Jones and The Invitations and Cape Cod’s Sun Dog Organ Trio. Sunday’s edition includes Jack Johnson, Donovan Frankenreiter and the jam band Fruition.

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Success via Doc Watson and Bob Dylan

Secor and his bandmates had a circuitous route to stardom. He grew up in Virginia, went to high school at the New Hampshire prep school, and eventually fell in with a bunch of roots musicians at Ithaca College. One of the signature moments in what would become Old Crow Medicine Show occurred when the group from Ithaca made their way south to Boone, North Carolina, in 1998.

In an episode worthy of Hollywood, Secor and his pals were busking in the street there one day when Doc Watson’s daughter heard them. She was so impressed she went home and returned with the blind bluegrass icon and Doc quickly became an enthusiastic fan. With that kind of endorsement, the lads were on their way and a record deal soon followed.

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Secor had been a longtime music fan and it was at Phillips Exeter Academy that he began working on “Wagon Wheel.” The 17-year old Secor had been charmed by a fragment on a rare Bob Dylan recording, an old blues tune that had an infectious chorus of “rock me, mama.” Researching it later, Secor would learn Dylan had picked it up from an Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup recording, but it was most likely originated by bluesman Big Bill Broonzey. Eventually, Secor filled out the lyrics in a way that reflected his Virginia youth and love of the South and roots music.

“That song captivated me right away and I just wanted to pass it along,” Secor said. “It became my spin on a Bob Dylan song, which was actually a traditional folk song.”

The song was immediately popular when, a few years later, Old Crow began playing it. Secor got in touch with Dylan and the two agreed on a 50-50 split of songwriting royalties for their updating of the traditional tune. Once the song came out on an Old Crow album, and was covered by several other artists, it became a runaway hit, and was declared platinum in 2013.

New Nashville digs

But Old Crow does more than just play old-timey music, they inject it with rock ‘n’ roll energy and even a bit of insouciant, punk-rock rebellion. Their latest album, “Paint This Town" on ATO Records, is perhaps their most rockin’  effort yet. The band spent part of its pandemic lockdown building a studio where the latest album was recorded.

“We needed that chance to come together and build our own Old Crow clubhouse," Secor said. "It had been a rough time in Nashville where we had the tornado on Super Tuesday of 2020 and then the pandemic shortly after. But people all over town came together to clean up and work together and we took that attitude into building our own studio and then making this album.”

“After 20 years of making music, it was a joy to have our own place,” Secor said. “We built it as we went along, so we’d write songs, go to the hardware store and then record in between doing drywall and flooring. But we all pitched in and it was a lot of fun.”

“We appreciate normalcy so much more now,” Secor said with a laugh. “But overall, we loved the break, the re-calibration it allowed – a chance for us all to ask, ‘Why are you in a band? What drives you?”

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Able to control their own recording sessions, Old Crow’s enthusiasm shines in every cut. The vibrant title cut, “Paint This Town,” could be an autobiography of any teenager with music dreams, while “Bombs Away” is the frenzied declaration of a crazed romantic. “Used to Be a Mountain” decries change and the way we exhaust our natural resources, but with a rockin’ tempo. And “Flicker and Shine” is a rollicking romp detailing band-on-the-road life.

Is the title cut autobiographical?

“All the songs I write are 10 to 20% autobiographical, and that’s a factor I can’t escape,” Secor said.  “Like ‘Bombs Away’ is about a crazy romantic, which I surely am, but it is a fun and spirited song."

“Gloryland” has a midtempo gospel feel without being overtly religious, yet portrays a hope for salvation somehow.

“I love gospel,” Secor said. “But I always endeavored to write polytheistic gospel, to appeal to whatever your spiritual yearning is. Music is a soaring call to the spirit and I try to leave it to the listener to interpret however they will. I sing songs like that from a Unitarian-Universalist concept of religion, which basically says whatever and however you believe, you are welcome.”

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A festival with such an ecological foundation as Levitate will no doubt welcome a song like “Used to Be a  Mountain,” which speaks wistfully of depleted natural beauty.

“It is really important when you have any kind of platform to speak what’s in your heart,” Secor said. “Country music has that tendency to reflect an audience’s wishes, and to take a stand kind of goes in the face of that. They don’t take stands like Johnny Cash anymore, but country is supposed to be the voice of rural people, supposed to make waves. You don’t see songs saying surface mining is hurtful, but it is, and the byproduct is poisoning our kids and the watershed.”

The Old Crow Medicine Show lineup boasts Secor on fiddle, harmonica and banjo; Cory Younts on mandolin and keyboards; Jerry Pentecost on drums; Mike Harris on guitar; Mason Via on guitar; and Morgan Jahnig on bass.

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If you don’t make it to Marshfield, the weekend does have other options. Friday night, Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion offers the chartbusting country sounds of Maren Morris and Brent Cobb, while country hitmaker Lee Brice visits The South Shore Music Circus on Sunday night. The Xfinity Center welcomes Chicago on Sunday, with an opening act that includes Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin – in other words, alumni of a surf-loving band whose name they can’t use. Sassy R&B  gals Christine Ohlman (of SNL's band) and Rebel Montez headline The Music Room in Yarmouth on Saturday night, and their opening act is Pembroke’s Matt York.

Two venues on summer vacation

Fans might note The Spire Center in Plymouth has no acts booked for July, while The Narrows Center is also dark until July 14, when Robert Earl Keen’s farewell tour is sold out.

Levitate Music Festival

When: July 8-10

Where: Marshfield Fairgrounds

Tickets: Three-day festival passes are $269, and single-day admissions are scaled at $99 for Friday, $119 for Saturday and $129 for Sunday.

Info: levitatemusicfestival.com

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Old Crow Medicine Show 'Paint This Town' Marshfield Levitate festival