A nearly 50-degree temperature difference between a sunny Sunday and a cold Monday left dedicated Old Crow Medicine Show fans flocking to heat lamps like moths to a flame at Inn Cahoots’ outdoor stage.
Ketch Secor appeared on the bill as part of the Take Action x South by Southwest Event Series, presented by Let Music Fill My World & Artist For Action. Sharing the stage with fellow co-founding member of Old Crow, Christopher “Critter” Fuqua, caused Secor’s short but sweet set to feel like the full band experience, rather than a solo act.
Blending their track “I Hear Them All” with Woody Guthrie’s folk classic “This Land Is Your Land” set the tone for the evening’s blend of activism and music through well-known protest songs.
Ending with the chilly winds blowing across the stage, Fuqua commented on how cold his hands felt as he strummed his acoustic guitar.
“Just pour a little Lone Star beer right over your palm,” Secor suggested, “That’s what Jerry Jeff Walker used to do.”
Secor reminisced on Old Crow’s first SXSW back in 2002.
“You could get a record deal when you showed up, and the motel room cost $59 out by the airport, and tacos were two for two,” Secor joked.
Fuqua and Secor melted into a beautiful harmony on “James River Blues” before continuing to reflect on past SXSW performances, including a show at Waterloo Records where Old Crow opened for Daniel Johnston.
“Daniel was there with his dad, and his dad had just bought him the biggest Slurpee you ever saw,” Secor said. “Daniel Johnston was dwarfed by this large Slurpee.”
“Most of it was on his sweatshirt,” Fuqua said.
Secor deftly switched between telling tales and balancing his fiddle, harmonica and harmonies. The duo performed an ode to Texas artist Lefty Frizzell, covering “Remember Me (When the Candle Lights Are Gleaming).”
Sweet blue grass filled the lawn as more people filed in, most likely hoping to catch the Passion Pit solo set following Secor’s performance. Regardless of what the audience expected — many confused faces found their feet tapping along — Secor and Fuqua held steadfast to beautiful harmonies and intimate stage chemistry.
Secor poked fun at Fuqua, wishing him a happy birthday and making sure the audience knew about his Texan status, even asking which nearby hospital Fuqua was born in. While the intermission between songs felt light and airy, as soon as the next track, “Take ‘em Away,” began, the serious emotion behind their lyrics took over.
“I wrote that when I was about 20,” Fuqua said. “My girlfriend broke up with me, and I went home and drank beer and wrote a song about a sharecropper.”
The evening ended with Old Crow’s most popular tune, “Wagon Wheel,” a country classic written partially by Bob Dylan and Secor himself. Secor put the finishing touches on the unreleased Dylan track in 2004, roughly 30 years later.
While the audience may not have appreciated the artistry of the set thus far, “Wagon Wheel” forced even the most reluctant listeners to marvel at Secor’s talent as both a storyteller and musician. Secor left the audience with one last monologue.
“I came, like most people, to Austin to get inebriated and fall in love with a Texas girl and eat BlueBonnet ice cream and stop at Braum’s and flirt with the waitresses,” Secor said. “But in all my travels across the great state of Texas, I never found a town that meant more to me than Austin.”
