Album Review: Old Crow Medicine Show - Carry Me Back

There's a lot of bands been stepping on their old-timey turf of late, but Virginian string band Old Crow Medicine Show still rule the roost when it comes to bluegrass-soaked Americana. Their fourth album proper, Carry Me Back, is a slight departure in tone from its predecessors, but a thrilling step forward while still continuing to look back over their shoulders.

As always there are no drums on Carry Me Back, only bluegrass pickings and haunting harmonies. The production, courtesy of Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem) is soft and warm and allows each authentic instrument to play its role. The arrangements are typically strong, but it's the content that sets this apart: where 2008's Tennessee Pusher focussed on the trials and tribulations of contemporary Southern living, Carry Me Back looks at what's been compromised in these regions from a historical perspective (land, lifestyle and rural pride). Life in the Deep South is omnipresent, from the Confederate ode of opener Carry Me Back To Virginia, to tales of farming tobacco (We Don't Grow Tobacco), moonshining corn whisky (Bootlegger's Boy), and life in the heartland of the Mississippi Delta (Mississippi Saturday Night), but there's also more traditional rustic fare such as rolls in the hay (Country Gal) and lovelorn laments (Steppin' Out).

In places, the Southern good 'ol boy shtick threatens to overshadow their complete mastery of the form, all carried by an effortless bonhomie and their trademark rock'n'roll exuberance. In recent times, other bands may have followed their lead and tackled this old-time aesthetic with more commercial success, but none have done so with Old Crow's authenticity and pure love of the form.