Old Crow Medicine Show Announce New Album ‘Paint This Town’

Photo credit: Kit Wood

Old Crow Medicine Show has announced Paint This Town, the GRAMMY award-winning Nashville-based band’s seventh studio album releasing April 22 via ATO Records. The band also shares a music video for the album’s title track “Paint This Town,” a swinging anthem that fully embodies the band’s carefree troublemaking over the last two decades. The video was directed by Travis Nicholson and turns back time to show younger versions of the band’s six members.

“This song is about growing up in a small town, and having to make fun wherever you could find it,” explains bandleader Ketch Secor. “Our band has always drawn its inspiration from those elemental American places, where water towers profess town names, where the Waffle House and the gas station are the only spots to gather; this is the scenery for folk music in the 21st century. And the John Henry’s and Casey Jones of today are the youth who rise up out of these aged burgs undeterred, undefeated, and still kicking.”

Paint This Town is a return to form for Old Crow Medicine Show, showcasing their ability to merge profound introspection with the rapturous string band revival sound that has made them one of the most influential and respected bands today. Their most incisive body of work to date, the new album shines a light on the darker aspects of the American experience with character-driven songs underpinned by the band’s vision for a more harmonious future. The album was recorded Spring of 2021 in Old Crow’s own Hartland Studio, where they co-produced it with Matt Ross-Spang (John Prine, Jason Isbell), taking a far more insular approach than their previous work. The process unlocked a new level of creative freedom, reviving the band’s spirit of pure abandon and making way for the deliberate unpredictability that recalls their earliest days busking on the street.

“At the end of the day, we’re still just trying to stop you on the street and get you to put a dollar in the guitar case,” says Morgan Jahnig. “Then once we’ve got your attention, we’re gonna tell you about things like the opioid epidemic and the Confederate flag and what’s happening with the environment—but we’re gonna do it with a song and dance. We feel a great obligation to talk about the more difficult things happening out there in the world, but we also feel obligated to make sure everyone’s having a great time while we do it.”

Paint This Town Tracklist

  1. Paint This Town
  2. Bombs Away
  3. Gloryland
  4. Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise
  5. Honey Chile
  6. Reasons To Run
  7. Painkiller
  8. Used To Be A Mountain
  9. DeFord Rides Again
  10. New Mississippi Flag
  11. John Brown’s Dream
  12. Hillbilly Boy

Old Crow Medicine Show Tour Dates:
December 10 – Nashville, TN @ Grand Ole Opry
December 11 – Nashville, TN @ Grand Ole Opry
December 16 – Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
December 17 – Newkirk, OK @ 7 Clans Casino
December 27 – Greenville, SC @ The Peace Center
December 28 – Knoxville, TN @ Tennessee Theatre
December 30 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
December 31 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium

Photo credit: Kit Wood

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