#union made

Song Review: Old Crow Medicine Show feat. Molly Tuttle - “Last American Waltz”

After suggesting Union Made might be a serious bluegrass album with “My Side of the Mountain,” Old Crow Medicine Show added a pop-leaning country love song to the mix.

Like its predecessor, “Last American Waltz” features Molly Tuttle singing alongside Ketch Secor. Unlike its predecessor, “Waltz” is a goopy country ballad that has little to do with string-band music.

Is anybody listenin’/can anybody hear/the last American waltz, Secor and Tuttle sing with a little too much drama in their voices.

OCMS and Tuttle fans will certainly listen - at least once. How many stick around for repeated spins remains a mystery.

Union Made is due June 5.

Grade card: Old Crow Medicine Show feat. Molly Tuttle - “Last American Waltz” - C-

Song Review: Old Crow Medicine Show feat. Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury and Molly Tuttle - “My Side of the Mountain”

The OCMS kitchen is most flavorful with an abundance of cooks.

A band that rarely matches its on-stage power in studio, Old Crow Medicine Show sure did so with “My Side of the Mountain,” the lead single from Union Made (June 5) that features Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury and Molly Tuttle.

An uptempo bluegrass song of fierce independence, “My Side” finds the Medicine men sharing lead and co-lead vocals with their guests before coming together on the chorus:

There’s a buckshot sign at the county line/out past Watauga Road/where we’re way too proud we don’t back down/’cause we’re better off alone/all we got is all we need and we sure can survive/well if that kind of living’s wrong/then just read me my rights/that’s the way of life on my side of the mountain, they sing.

Owing to the guests’ critical contributions, “My Side of the Mountain” might be the one OCMS song that burns brightest on record. And speaking of records, Union Made also features appearances from Jesse Welles, Maggie Rose, Lee Oskar and others.

Grade card: Old Crow Medicine Show feat. Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury and Molly Tuttle - “My Side of the Mountain” - A

That last line of text says ‘Union Made’

I just made it to my new home over 2,200 miles (3,540km) from my hometown in NW Montana (less than 80 miles from the Canadian border). I arrived at my new place last week, and have been adjusting to new climate, new micro culture, new time zone.

Been missing a lot of things about MT, too. I don’t miss the hyper masculine, “anti woke” bullshit. Seriously was a haven for coal rolling trump flag waving assholes of every variety. I don’t miss the neo nazis, white supremacy, the timothy mcveigh-level anti government cool aid drinkers and I don’t miss having super fked up fundamental Christian churches and shitty casino chains doting the landscape denser than Starbucks in downtown Seattle.

But I miss the land itself… Mountains and streams I could happily die in… Sky so big, so close and so clear it makes you question your own senses (when it’s not stained brown with wildfire smoke)…

I miss the animals… Too many, of sui generis types and just the coolest things to be sharing space with… too many to even list gdi

And oddly enough I was even missing the beer. For a hot minute in the early 2000’s, Montana was home to the highest number of different micro breweries per-capita in the entire US. I had numerous local favorites over the years, Bayern brewing still being a good go-to, but often times replaced by any number of other offerings (Kettlehouse, Bozeman Brewing Co., Kalispell Brewing Co. all had their hits, among many others).

I kind of expected being closer to “civilization” in the new place would actually offer up more variety just by being in range of major food and beverage transportation hubs, but what I found so far is mostly just wider selection of cheap mass production drinks. More interesting local varieties do not have the same rep as they did back home, proportionally.

So I decided to just dive in and taste the mega-factory piss-beers. They aren’t as good, of course, but they’re still drinkable and its hot and Summertime so who cares…