The Black Crowes promised special guests for their all-acoustic show at the Ryman Auditorium on Sunday night, but no one was expecting nearly a dozen guests to show up for the Nashville finale. Bluegrass legend Sam Bush, former Black Crowes member Audley Freed, Chuck Mead of BR549 and ALL of Old Crow Medicine Show were just a few of the musicians on hand to sit in with The Black Crowes.

[Photo by @IdlewildSouth]

The first guest to come out last night was mandolinist Sam Bush, who sat in with The Crowes on a total of seven songs including rarities My Heart’s Killing Me, Garden Gate and Deep River Blues (Doc Watson). Bush was also on hand when the evening’s second guest – Audley Freed – who played lead guitar with the late ’90s and early ’00s version of The Black Crowes, joined his old mates. Freed came out early in the show for a Rich Robinson-sung take on Feelin’ Alright and returned for the final song of the evening – Boomer’s Story. Jackie Greene showed off his versatility during the acoustic performance by playing banjo on Whoa Mule and Garden Gate.

One of the evening’s biggest bust outs came towards the middle of the set when the Crowes dusted off a cover of Gram Parsons’ Cash On The Barrelhead with the help of Bush and Chuck Mead of BR549. Both Robinson Brothers had a solo turn during the show as Rich sang All Along The Way from his 2011 solo album, while Chris tackled Someday Past The Sunset from the Chris Robinson Brotherhood’s The Magic Door LP by his lonesome. Then, all the members of the Old Crow Medicine Show guested with The Black Crowes for a lengthy “Double Crow(e)s” segment that featured covers of East Virginia Blues (The Carter Family), Oh The Rain (Blind Willie Johnson) and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (The Band). Other guests included a pair of female vocalists and a percussionist, while another cover debut came in the form of Bob Dylan’s Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.

Here’s a look at last night’s setlist according to CrowesBase…

READ ON

Welcome to the fifth consecutive Best Albums of the Year here at Hidden Track. Hopefully, you know by now that we pride ourselves on covering music that spans any genre, any age, any geography and any instrumental makeup. To us, good music is good music. Period.

So, you can rest assured of the one thing that will always make our list a cut above the rest: we consider everything. Our submissions include all styles of music from bluegrass to jazz, jam to indie, electronica to rap, as well as everything in between. At the end of the day, we’re a diverse open-minded music blog. Our writers work here because they have great taste in music, and thus they are encouraged simply to write about what catches their interest. We have no motives, no editorial biases and no strings attached. We hope that comes across in our picks.

So, let’s kick off our week-long celebration of the HT staff’s favorite albums of 2012 with numbers 25 through 21…

25) Old Crow Medicine Show – Carry Me Back

Sounds Like: The modern torchbearers of Bill Monore’s high and lonesome sound

Key Tracks: Carry Me Back, Levi, Bootlegger’s Boy

The Skinny: Long before it was cool to play acoustic foot-stomping Americana music, there was the Old Crow Medicine Show. The Nashville-based band, who have been around since 1998, could arguably be credited with planting the seeds the genre’s current boom – thanks in part to the popularity of their “breakout hit” Wagon Wheel. For their first album since 2008, the band welcomed back founding member Critter Fuqua, and delivered a modern Americana classic steeped in bourbon-soaked bluegrass, dusty country and traditional Appalachian folk sounds. While there has been a question about the authenticity of the newer generation of roots acts, OCMS are undoubtedly the real McCoy.

- Jeffrey Greenblatt

• Spotify Playlist: Hidden Track’s Top 25 Albums Of 2012
  
• Previously On HT: Top 25 Albums Of 2011

24) First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar

READ ON

The pride of Nashville, Old Crow Medicine Show, treated those in the Media Tent at the Hangout Music Festival to their signature song, Wagon Wheel, on Sunday afternoon. Take a look…

Old Crow Medicine Show – Wagon Wheel

OCMS heads to DelFest in Cumberland, MD on Friday night.

Late last month the trifecta of Old Crow Medicine Show, Mumford & Sons and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros embarked on the six-date Railroad Revival Tour across the American Southwest, which saw the acts traveling exclusively in vintage rail cars and playing unique outdoor locations along the route. During their stop in Austin, TX the three acts recorded this live exuberant, ramshackle performance of the Woody Guthrie tune This Train Is Bound For Glory at the Austin Amtrak Station…

OCMS, Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – This Train Is Bound For Glory

For the encore of their 2007 performance at the quirky home of the London Symphony Orchestra, St. Lukes, Gillian Welch and long-time musical partner, David Rawlings, brought out the members of Old Crow Medicine Show to perform a moving rendition of the Weight. This broadcast aired on BBC4…

Welch, Rawlings & OCMS – The Weight

I’ve lived in Nashville, Tennessee for going on nine years at this point and since my residency here I’ve only traveled to Memphis one other time for a show. You see, the stretch of I-40 between Nashville and Memphis is called Music Highway — but to me it’s just flat out BOOOOORING.

[We're All In This Thing Together]

This past Sunday was my second trip to Memphis to witness Old Crow Medicine Show and The Felice Brothers. After an (actual) enjoyable three-hour road trip and a pork-pulled sandwich from Tops the mood was set for what was witnessed at the completely new-state-of-the-art venue venue in Memphis — Minglewood Hall.

I’ve had the opportunity to see the Felice Brothers a couple of times this past year, and to be perfectly honest – their 45 minute set was the sole reason I traveled to Memphis. But the music lover I am, I decided to stick it out just to see what Old Crow had to offer. READ ON for more…

The 1973 Western Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid isn’t exactly a memorable movie, but one fantastic tune came out of the ashes of the flick. Bob Dylan scored the film and came up with a number of songs for the soundtrack. One tune that didn’t make the soundtrack was a joyous ditty named Rock Me Mama. Rock Me Mama was included on a number of Dylan bootlegs, yet was never officially released.

In the early ’00s, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show took Dylan’s original chorus and wrote gorgeous verses around them. The result of Secor’s efforts, Wagon Wheel, became extremely popular and has been covered by a slew of artists including Steven Kellogg, Little Feat and Soul Farm. Here’s Old Crow Medicine Show’s gripping video for Wagon Wheel…

Further Viewing:

• Bob Dylan – Rock Me Mama
• Old Crow Medicine Show – Wagon Wheel (Live)
• Soul Farm – Wagon Wheel