Old Crow Medicine Show will release their seventh studio album this spring. Paint This Town finds the Grammy Award winners returning to their trademark sound, rooted in traditional folk with a modern twist.
To coincide with the announcement, the band shared their upcoming record’s title track on Wednesday (Dec. 8) with a music video directed by Travis Nicholson.
“This song is about growing up in a small town, and having to make fun wherever you could find it,” bandleader Ketch Secor noted in a press release. “Our band has always drawn its inspiration from those elemental American places, where water towers profess town names, where the Waffle House and the gas station are the only spots to gather; this is the scenery for folk music in the 21st century. And the John Henry’s and Casey Jones of today are the youth who rise up out of these aged burgs undeterred, undefeated, and still kicking.”
Watch the music video for “Paint This Town” below.
Co-produced with Matt Ross-Spang, who has also worked alongside greats including John Prine and Jason Isbell, Paint This Town was recorded in the band’s own Hartland Studios. The project was birthed out of a more organic, free-spirited approach to the writing and recording process. It was a strategy that the band says brought them back to the early, DIY-heavy days of their career, performing for passersby while busking on the street.
“At the end of the day, we’re still just trying to stop you on the street and get you to put a dollar in the guitar case,” Old Crow Medicine Show bassist Morgan Jahnig said in a statement. “Then once we’ve got your attention, we’re gonna tell you about things like the opioid epidemic and the Confederate flag and what’s happening with the environment—but we’re gonna do it with a song and dance. We feel a great obligation to talk about the more difficult things happening out there in the world, but we also feel obligated to make sure everyone’s having a great time while we do it.”
Paint This Town is due out on April 22 and available for pre-order and to pre-save now. Full album details are below.
Paint This Town Tracklist:
1. “Paint This Town”
2. “Bombs Away”
3. “Gloryland”
4. “Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise”
5. “Honey Chile”
6. “Reasons To Run”
7. “Painkiller”
8. “Used To Be A Mountain”
9. “DeFord Rides Again”
10. “New Mississippi Flag”
11. “John Brown’s Dream”
12. “Hillbilly Boy”