It’s been nearly seven years since Old Crow Medicine Show visited the Grand Canyon Stat, so the band plans to give fans a healthy dose of music when it plays the Fox Tucson Theatre on Wednesday, July 19.
The two-time Grammy Award-winning band plans to put on an adrenaline-filled show with no moment of silence.
“No dead air; that’s kind of our thing,” said Cory Younts, who plays the mandolin, harmonica, keyboards and sings. “We’re really all about keeping the show moving and keeping it full of entertainment that just never stops.”
Music is continually playing, and the musicians sing or tell jokes.
“Our show has a lot of humor,” Younts said. “Some of it might be a little cheesy but as long as we’re having fun, the audience is having fun.”
Younts said he and the band encourage an exchange of energy with the audience.
“When they’re smiling and clapping it makes our job a lot easier,” he said. “It’s a give-and-take thing and as the audience is showing us that they’re enjoying it, it makes our job a lot easier.”
The band needs all the encouragement it can get as it rotates through myriad instruments, including fiddlesticks, washboard, accordion, jaw harp, fiddles, piano and as many as five banjos, which are played in unison during one part of the set.
“It’s quite an entourage,” Younts said with a laugh.
Adding to the ensemble is an expansive discography of nine full-length studio albums. The latest release was 2022’s “Paint This Town.”
Younts admits having a 25-year broad discography has made creating a set list a tall task.
“It is pretty hard,” Younts admits. “Over the years it does get a little bit more difficult to try and keep playing something from every album, but we try and stick to at least one song from everything.”
Younts confessed he has felt a strong affinity for playing some of the band’s more contemporary tunes and unreleased material.
“I’m really enjoying playing songs off ‘Paint This Town,’ our most recent album,” he said. “We have another album coming out in September that we’re looking forward to. We haven’t started playing too many of those songs yet, but they’ll be out soon.”
Because Old Crow Medicine Show covers a range of music and plays a bigger mix of instruments at its shows, Younts said he enjoys playing in intimate theaters like the Chandler Center for the Arts.
“We still stick to the same rule of no dead air, but I sometimes feel that our storytelling is a little bit better and our stories get a little bit more detailed when we’re playing in an intimate environment like that,” Younts said.
These types of shows allow the band to forge a deeper connection with prospective musicians in the audience as well.
“It’s a great thing to see a child’s face light up, especially when we try and give away a harmonica during our set, which we always try to do,” he said. “I also hope that someone will go, ‘I’m going to go buy me a banjo or go buy me a harmonica after this is over.’”
But above all, Younts hopes to give fans a stellar show.
“We want the audience to leave with a good smile on their faces,” he said. “We want to keep country music alive. We truly believe in the traditional spirit of country music, and that’s what we hope people will still remember, what good country music is.”