Old Crow Medicine Show - Big Iron World

I found a couple of places online that called this the "sophomore" effort from the Old Crow Medicine Show, which I think is somewhat misleading, as these boys have a LOT of recordings under their belt, with several full-length albums (including a live one), EPs, and various tracks recorded with other artists (including Gillian Welch, who appears on Big Iron World as a drummer for several tracks). But no matter whether it's their second disc or their fifth, it does a hell of a job demonstrating that it's entirely possible to mingle traditional sounds with modern performances. These boys sound fresh out of the holler, but their music is sharply urban in theme and quite politically savvy. There's a lot of smarts in these lyrics, crisp and fresh and often sly and cunning. They approach with the sheer mountain sounds of banjo, slide, fiddle, and upright bass, expertly played to where you might think you're listening to some old Clinch Mountain boys from the forties, but once you listen to them lyrics, ah, you know you're in 2006. Of course, sexual innuendo and drugs aren't exactly new to bluesy-folk-country music, but the way it's done changes every decade.

Of course, the tradition is always bred deep in these southern boys. They ARE from the hollers, so of course they sound that way. And you can't help but be modern in today's world, where everything moves faster than Superman. That they're sharp enough to have recorded a song like "I Hear Them All," which absolutely struck me all the way to the bone, was enough for me. "I hear the crying of the hungry in the deserts where they're wandering/ Hear them crying out for heaven's own but never lets up on them/ hear destructive power prevailing/ I hear fools falsely hailing to the crooked wits of tyrants when they call/ I hear them all, I hear them all, I hear them all. . . . So while you sit and whistle Dixie with your money and your power/ I can hear the flowers growing in the rubble of the towers/ I hear leaders quit their lying, I hear babies quit their crying/ I hear soldiers quit their dying one and all/ I hear them all, I hear them all, I hear them all." They have managed to recombine mountain music, country, and folk at its purest level with this song, and it's not the only great one on this disc.

These boys aren't afraid to take up any hot topic, from the war to unions to creeping "progress," it's all fair game. And still they don't lose their sense of humor nor their faith in God. From the disappearing jobs in "James River Blues" to the honest devotion in "God's Got It," with the tongue-in-cheek fun of "Let It Alone," this disc should find a home with any lover of mountain roots music. Band members Willie Watson, Ketch Secor, Critter Fuqua, Kevin Hayes, and Morgan Jahnig (with, as mentioned, occasional drumming from Welch and guitar work from David Rawlings) know what they're doing. Secor and Fuqua are the main songwriters, although they cull from the traditional ("Cocaine Habit," "Let it Alone") and Woody Guthrie ("Union Maid") as well as blues/rock composer extraordinaire, Jerry Leiber ("Down Home Girl"). It's almost hard to believe this was recorded in Nashville, but it just goes to show there is still real country music hiding there. You just have to find it.