July 2025 Edition

Hello There!

Blow up that inflatable swan, premoisten the slip-n’-slide, ice down those flavor-ices for the kids and grab a suitcase of Old Milwaukee beer (or a two liter of Cheerwine?) for you and the your sweetheart... It's summertime! Time for plunging into ice cold waters off the Gulf of Maine and the Gulf of St Lawrence, or for balmy bathwater if you're down on the Gulf of Mexico (personally I prefer Levon Helm's pronunciation of these particular international waters. “Up On Cripple Creek” by The Band) Or maybe you're diving into Superior or Huron or one the other Great Lakes?  If so, crank up "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot. And if you're floating on a rubber ducky in a hotel pool somewhere out in Arizona I suggest “Route 66” by Ray Charles. It’s summer and things are starting to heat up here at home in Nashville, Tennessee. Of course, we were bummed for all the attendees who had their Bonnaroo 2025 rained out, but at least you got to see Arcade Fire play to a crowd of a 100 at East Nashville’s best new honktytonk Skinny Dennis. Or maybe you had the good fortune of dancing along to your favorite country singer during unseasonably cool recent Fan Fair festivities (yep, just like the Gulf of Mex. I still use CMA Fest’s original name). I enjoyed hearing the three nights of stadium shows from the comfort of my front porch and without irony I found myself singing along to a not-too-distant Darius Rucker who belted his rendition of Wagon Wheel as bats swooped and fireflies lit up the neighborhood. Growing up in the 90’s I dreamed of going to Nashville to Fan Fair to meet my favorite country stars. Little did I know back then that Old Crow would have the privilege of meeting and even performing with many of the stars I revered. Dwight Yoakum’s "1,000 Miles from Nowhere” was undoubtably the biggest contemporary song of the era to turn young Critter and I into hardcore Country fans. That and basically anything by Alan Jackson. Yesterday while on tour in St John’s, Newfoundland I heard "Little Bitty" come on my rental car radio and even 30 years later it still has the same effect on me. Years later we’ve shared a stage with dozens of the very artists Old Crow first loved back in Nashville's roaring 90’s including Dwight and Alan, Dolly, Loretta, Merle, Reba, and even Charley Pride who’s version of Cottonfields has been in our setlist since the spring.  Though Fan Fair is usually reserved for more mainstream acts I did make a brief appearance this year at Eric Church’s new downtown spot to join Americana artists from Nikki Lane to Sierra Ferrell in celebration of Lukas Nelson’s new album. Speaking of new albums (we’ll get to mine in a sec) I am very excited for Molly Tuttle’s new album "So Long Little Miss Sunshine". Be sure and check out her new single “The Highway Knows” by Molly Tuttle. We wrote this one together, as well as nearly all of the tracks on the album. It’s an amazing project which I had the privilege of playing fiddle, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, banjo, and singing on along with famed producer and fellow Cleveland Guardians fan Jay Joyce. 

And of course summer wouldn’t be summer without some exciting Old Crow live shows across the USA. We’ve got concerts scheduled from the Great Lakes across to the eastern seaboard and beyond. It’s our 28th summer of being a live act, and I can guarantee you won’t want to miss the chance to see what we’ve got cooked up for you. Whether it's a festival or a theatre show, regardless of if we’re the opener or the headliner, OCMS knows how to keep the good vibrations going all summer long. And that reminds me, one artist we’re particular sad to miss this summer is the great Brian Wilson, one of the all time greatest musical minds, a producer, songwriter and performer whose boundless determination to go the distance for a song is an inspiration to pickers like us the world over. I still have my dad’s well worn 60 year old copy of Pet Sounds, and it sounds just as vitally urgent today even as then. Happy 75th b-day, Pop. Here’s one of your old faves: “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by The Beach Boys. 

Well, one last topic I sure want to cover in this July edition of Old Crow Confessional is something truly exciting and brand new: TODAY is my album release date. Yup, Ketch Secor "Story The Crow Told Me" is out today, July 11th! It's hard to believe it's taken me 28 summers long to finally put something on the merch table with my name on it. (Oh Monica, how I wish you were here for this.) But, lo and behold today’s the day. Think of this record as a companion piece to previous OCMS albums. Sort of like one of those deluxe edition DVD’s they made that had the option of watching the film along with the director’s commentary. It’s a back-of-the-kitchen kind of explanation of how the band got here in the first place, a song cycle that tells the story of our earliest days, strumming on Canadian street corners, a chance meeting with Doc Watson on a curb in Boone, North Carolina, and setting our sights on the Grand Ole Opry and Nashville, Tennessee, Music City, USA. The album features guest appearances by original OCMS members like Willie Watson and Critter Fuqua (I tried but couldn’t coax Kevin Hayes out of retirement) as well as Old Crow’s polestar the great Marty Stuart, new friends like Jaren Jonson from The Cadillac Three, and of course the inimitable singing of Molly Tuttle. Listen down and you’ll hear how a kid named Ketch made his start on quixotic busking trips across North America, seeking to discover the wilderness in his own back yard, using music for a dousing rod, decidedly the traditional folk and country music of the continent. Through a 13 song chronology I’ll show you just how it felt and just what it took to catch a ride down life’s road with only a thumb stuck out and a fiddle for an atlas. I hope you’ll like it. Though I’ll be glad if you like it even half as much as I enjoyed making it. See, until I started worked on this project last spring with co-producer and writer Jody Stevens I hadn’t yet thought so deeply about these earliest days of OCMS some 28 summers ago when I was 19 years old and set out on this journey. Back then I didn’t have a clue what would be waiting for me on the other side. It didn’t dawn on me what it would be like if I actually made it and I certainly wasn’t thinking about fame or fortune. I was thinking about my bandmates, guys I had just met, and whether our Volvo station wagon would make it over Wolf Creek Pass. I was wondering whether we’d fill the tip jar enough to get on down the road from Wawa, Ontario and Portland, Oregon, whether we’d be good enough win honorable mention in the string band competition at the Mount Airy Fiddler’s Convention. I couldn’t see much of a future past the present, and that’s why these 28 summers later it’s so cathartic to me to share these stories the crow told me with you. They say hind sight is 20/20, so it’s only In putting myself back into the mind of my 19 year old self that I can fully see the why’s and how’s behind the choices I made. Many of these memories had grown murky and dim through the years and many were harder still to encounter, but it's important that I go back to the very beginning and try to see it anew. Because for a guy whose spent the past 28 summers looking at the road map, staring in hopeful wonder at the next stop, looking back means more than wistful nostalgia, instead it’s a prodigal return. I am not the same fiddler, singer, songwriter, I once was any more than the world is the same as it was nearly 3 decades ago. In the exploration of these dark cave-like rooms of my memories I am left with one feeling more profound above the rest: gratitude. I’m just so grateful to all the powers that be I made it through relatively unscathed. This was not an easy road trip I set out on. But I’m living proof. You can chase a dream your whole life and realize you caught it on the first try. So, here’s to my little record. May a song or two from it find a special place in your heart. 

Well, I hope y'all are each and all are having a safe and fun summer out there. I wish you love and peace and joy and enough fuel for whatever the road your on. May something wondrous be waiting for you at the jouney’s end like it’s been for me.

Yours Truly,

Ketch Secor