​Ketch Secor (from the album Story the Crow Told Me

​Ketch Secor (from the album Story the Crow Told Me

​Ketch Secor (from the album Story the Crow Told Me available on The Noise Company) (by Brian Rock)
Old Crow Medicine Show frontman Ketch Secor pens a stream of consciousness love letter to Nashville on his debut solo album, Story The Crow Told Me. Recalling his days busking on street corners for pocket change, sharing fond memories of all the dive bars he’s played along the way, and paying tribute to those who strode across Nashville’s storied stages before him, Secor blends the most modern, post-Country subgenres with treasured traditions. For Story the Crow Told Me talking Country Blues narratives create a mini documentary of his personal Nashville journey.
“Old Man River” leans into the joyful melodies of his Old Crow Medicine Show catalog.  Finding solace from the pressures of city living, Ketch Secor sings ‘last night was a hell of night. I stepped in and broke up the fight. All of them boys went and scattered ev’ry which way. Then I went down to the river to pray’. Banjo and harmonica recreate the calming natural rhythms of the Cumberland River. The melody skips and sparkles like a river in early spring. Whenever modern living becomes too much for him, he finds succor, confiding ‘me and the old man river gonna figure it out’.
“Busker’s Spell” finds Secor reminiscing about his earliest days in Music City. Against a bluesy Country/Bluegrass backbeat he sings ‘my case swung open like a door to hell, trying to catch me a busker’s bill. Whoa, let it rain’. “Ghost Train” (featuring Marty Stuart) commemorates Old Crow Medicine Show’s decision to take a risk and make that leap of faith, traveling west from the Appalachian Mountains to the bright lights of Music City. “Dickerson Road” is a Country/Rap tribute to Nashville’s seedy east side. “Holes in the Wall” blends Bluegrass and Alt Rock to commemorate some of Ketch Secor’s favorite dive bars. The rapid-fire lyrics evoke REM’s “It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”. “Catch Me If You Can” is a more traditional, harmonica laced Country song that sees Secor attempting to “catch a silver dollar with a song”. Continuing the traditional Country rhythms, “On the Wall” finally finds Ketch Secor achieving his musical dreams when he finds his band’s poster on the same wall with Roy Acuff and Dolly Parton. Secor then takes some time to pay tribute to the artists who came before, and inspired him. “Talkin’ Doc Blues,” is a full speed square dance tribute to Doc Watson. “Junkin’” is a Bluegrass tribute to some of the lesser stars of Nashville that you might’ve found in a bargain bin record sale in years past. With an auctioneer’s intensity, he rattles off a litany of less than famous bands and artists. “What Nashville Was” incorporates Hip-Hop lyrical flow over a Country ballad rhythm to celebrate Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and the Nashville of yesteryear. Summarizing his quarter century in Nashville, Ketch Secor says, “Thanks Again”; the Bluegrass/Country fusion of the song celebrating the city itself, and the residents who keep it running. Returning to nature, Secor pays homage to the Tennessee woodlands in “Highland Rim”. Marty Stuart joins in once again to help praise the healing power of nature, and to embrace Country music’s ties to the land. Story The Crow Told Me is Ketch Secor’s poetic tribute to the city, the natural beauty, and the timeless music of Nashville. Blending musical styles of its past and present, Ketch Secor creates a patchwork quilt of some of his most personal memories of the town that helped shape who he is today. (by Brian Rock)
Listen and buy the music of Ketch Secor from AMAZON
For more information, please visit the Ketch Secor website