Pages tagged “nettwerk”

Old Crow Medicine Show dabbles in new prescriptions

With its self-titled 2004 debut, Old Crow Medicine Show careened to the vanguard of modern bluegrass, largely due to the blast of energy the band brought to the genre. While it makes for an easily flammable straw man to imagine the rest of the bluegrass world as a taxidermy convention of hidebound traditionalists and corny neo-hippie banjo plunkers, OCMS managed to be simultaneously reverent to the genre’s musical form and edgy as all hell. They demanded notice. Somewhere between fiddleman Ketch Secor’s chiseled-rogue looks and the scrawn and yawp of fellow vocalists Willie Watson and Critter Fuqua, OCMS struck a nerve—and to its credit, even the more traditional corridors of Nashville paid tribute, inviting the band to the Grand Ole Opry and Emmylou Harris’ induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.    

Canadian folkies Great Lake Swimmers had a busy summer. They've been touring since May, mostly north of the border, including one date when they opened for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss in GLS's hometown of Toronto. They performed at charity concerts and focused on building community. But when Tony Dekker wasn't busy scoring a documentary, paying homeage to Canadian concrete, or playing drill sergeant in folk boot camp, Great Lake Swimmers began creating new material. Nettwerk just announced the anticipated release of the band’s fourth album, set for early Spring 2009.