Music for the Footsore: Old Crow Medicine Show

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OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW makes folk music for bus stations. The hard-touring Nashville string band doesn't write for album-buyers or concert-goers, but for the poor, weary travelers all but invisible in popular culture.

"It's important that folk music reflect this body of people," says singer and head songwriter Ketch Secor. "Those are the songs that I'm hearing in the travels we make, in the alleys behind the clubs. That's who hits me up for change."

Despite singing about such grave subject matter as addiction, poverty and civil rights, Old Crow's third album, "Tennessee Pusher," sounds lively and inventive — a few moments' joy after a long day's work. Along with its energetic concerts, its working-class songs, empathically composed yet raucously played, have garnered Old Crow such a fan base that it's playing two-night stands through most of the current tour.

"Tennessee Pusher" was recorded far from the bus stations of its title state. The band traveled to Hollywood to record at the historic Henson Lot, down the hall from where Jessica Simpson was recording her country debut.

There, the band still captured its familiar sense of rootlessness and restlessness, which extends from its nearly constant touring. They're weary travelers themselves.

"There's a lot of truck stops and pay phones on this record," says Secor. "There's a lot of walking around behind motel rooms."

» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Fri. & Sat., 7 p.m., $25; 202-265-0930.
(U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner
Photo by Aaron Farrington