One to Crow about

After years of street busking and hard road slogs, Old Crow Medicine Show has been able to prove that a down-home honest string band revival is ripe for the big stage.

The five-piece crew of rowdy string bandits, now based out of Nashville, started by playing on street corners for spare change. But along with unwavering perseverance, a serendipitous encounter with Doc Watson helped spiral the band into success. An invite to play at Watsons high-profile Merlefest led to friendship with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who produced the group’s debut record with the ubiquitous underground hit song “Wagon Wheel.”

Today the band — Ketch Secor on fiddle, Willie Watson on guitar, Kevin Hayes on guitjo, Morgan Jahnig on bass and recent addition Gill Landry on slide guitar — brings their foot-stomping barn burners to crowds in the thousands and can boast multiple sell-outs of its hometown’s historic Ryman Auditorium.

This summer, Old Crow is headlining the Big Surprise Tour, a multi-band bill featuring Rawlings and Welch, as well as the Felice Brothers and Justin Townes Earle, son of country bard Steve Earle.

The format for the summer outing, which will visit the Charlottesville Pavilion on Sunday night, is not the usual stagnant short-set showcase. Instead, the bands will bring back the tradition of the old-time traveling revue, with sets blending together between the artists, who plan to write songs together as they wander down the East Coast.

“There’s a great potential for good songs to come from this trip,” said Secor. “Any time you sign up for something that’s outside of what you normally do and take a risk, you make great art.

“It’s going to be a long night of music in the formats of old country, roots music and rock ’n’ roll. We call it the Big Surprise because we don’t know what’s going to happen on a nightly basis. I think we will be just as surprised as anybody in the audience.”

The tour is a chance for the members of Old Crow to bring together some of their favorite musicians from past and present. In addition to their studio work with Welch and Rawlings, the band shared gigs with Justin Townes Earle during their early days in Nashville.

Up-and-comers the Felice

Brothers, who play a raucous blend of songwriter-driven mountain rock from the Catskills of New York, toured with Old Crow earlier this year, and the two bands became instant friends.

All of the spokes of the wheel connect onto the hub that is Old Crow, said Secor. “These are all friends in our lives in different ways. The Felice Brothers are new on the scene, but we feel a real connection with them. I see a lot of ourselves in them.”

Secor also said some special friends could emerge — specifically during the Charlottesville stop of the tour. The fiddler and singer grew up in Harrisonburg, and his wife is a University of Virginia graduate.

In the early days of Old Crow, the band shared what he describes as a kinship with local favorites the Hackensaw Boys. The two groups also shared multiple shows at the Jefferson Theatee and the Outback Lodge at the start of the decade.

“I’ve played all over the street corners of Charlottesville since the early ’90s,” Secor continued. “It’s really a hometown for me in a lot of ways, and the music community is an important one. We have some longtime friends in town who I’m looking forward to reconnecting with.”

Details

The Big Surprise Tour with Old Crow Medicine Show, David Rawlings Machine featuring Gillian Welch, the Felice Brothers and Justin Townes Earle

7 p.m. Sunday

Charlottesville Pavilion

$35

http://www.charlottesvillepavilion.com

(877) CPAV-TIX