With their return to Australia imminent, it seems a good opportunity to give Old Crow Medicine Show's recent live DVD a spin. Young men playing old time music - a combination of bluegrass, roots, folk and blues; for convenience's sake, call it Americana - the Medicine Show have managed to garner surprisingly wide appeal, perhaps in part due to endorsements from Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings as well as elder statesmen like Merle Haggard. Eschewing any extra features, this bare bones release presents the group in their element - onstage and in full flight. Featured are 20 songs cribbed from two performances in December last year in the intimate confines of The Orange Peel, North Carolina and at the larger Tennessee Theatre. The shows are documented simply and effectively; lingering frames of the group onstage, capturing the interplay between members, occasionally interspersed with atmospheric shots of America's south. The Medicine Show maintain a blistering pace and, as evidenced by the torrent of sweat dripping down fiddle player Ketch Secor's instrument, clearly push themselves to their physical limits. A great deal of the set comprises the trad-arrs the band are famous for and you can't help but be swept along by the sheer propulsion of their frenetic readings. The audience reciprocates, as raucous and energetic as any rock crowd - particularly one punter that the camera often returns to, who looks like he's been caught mid-self-exorcism. The group, however, are at their best when they delve into their own, generally more restrained, catalogue. I Hear Them All, a co-write with David Rawlings that clearly bears his influence, is a particular highlight, as is the wistful Caroline and the ragged, slow-burning Tennessee Pusher. A rollicking testament to Old Crow Medicine Show's powerful live performances.
