Two-time GRAMMY Winners Old Crow Medicine Show Join Forces with Sierra Ferrell for "Belle Meade Cockfight"
The track was released with a music video.
By: Michael Major Jul. 18, 2023
Two-time GRAMMY award-winning band Old Crow Medicine Show shares their new single “Belle Meade Cockfight” featuring singer/songwriter Sierra Ferrell.
Accompanied by a campy old-school-hoedown music video directed and produced by band member Morgan Jahning, “Belle Meade Cockfight” is the latest track from the band’s new album Jubilee, which releases August 25 via ATO Records. The video was featured this morning at BrooklynVegan, who praised the “energetic, old-timey, rollicking country/bluegrass song.”
“My hometown is the self-proclaimed poultry capital of the world, smack in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia,” explains bandleader Ketch Secor. “I love chickens, have raised 'em from under the lightbulb to the brooder box, and I see their grace and beauty. Poultry makes fantastic fodder for song, always has. I can’t admit to having regularly attended cockfights, only that chickens are in my blood.
But songwriting lets you travel the seven seas without leaving your porch swing, or in this case the cockfight ring, so I composed this ditty after extensive research and hope I've done right by the scholars of the sport.”
He continues, “I called up Sierra Ferrell and told her I had a ‘cockfight love song’ and needed a sparring partner. Not surprising, she was game. She’s from just over the line in West Virginia and knows a thing or two about the joys of chickens. We dedicate this one to Sarah Cannon, the opulent southern dame behind Minnie Pearl’s folksy persona. S
arah embodied class duality in Country music as only a Shakespearian actress-turned-hayseed-rib-tickler could. The only thing I can think of that better exemplifies Country music’s ability to be at once ‘highfalutin’ and ‘for the people’ would be if they started holding cockfights on Saturday nights in old Belle Meade.”
“Belle Meade Cockfight” follows the album’s debut single “Miles Away,” a sweetly reflective song co-written by Secor and bluegrass virtuoso Molly Tuttle, with guest vocals from Old Crow Medicine Show co-founder Willie Watson. Featured by BrooklynVegan, American Songwriter, No Depression and more, “Miles Away” marks the first time Watson has recorded with the band in over 10 years.
In addition to Watson and Ferrell, Jubilee also features legendary soul singer Mavis Staples. The album finds Old Crow Medicine Show once again co-producing with Matt Ross-Spang (Drive-By Truckers, St. Paul & the Broken Bones) and recording at their own Hartland Studios.
As they gear up to celebrate their 25th anniversary, the band doubles down on their commitment to creating roots music that bears an undeniable urgency, encompassing everything from jug-band tunes to Irish folk songs to exultant gospel jams. The result is a wildly expansive body of work showcasing the dazzling musicality and poetic yet powerfully trenchant storytelling that has made Old Crow Medicine Show one of the most potent and influential forces in American roots music.
Jubilee follows the band’s critically acclaimed 2022 release Paint This Town, which hit #1 on the Americana Radio Albums Chart and debuted at the top of Billboard’s Bluegrass Albums Chart. Earlier this year, Old Crow Medicine Show released a powerful protest song called “Louder Than Guns,” written in the aftermath of the devastating Covenant School shooting.
A father of two and co-founder of The Episcopal School of Nashville, Ketch Secor penned a compelling guest essay for The New York Times, spoke with Rolling Stone, CNN’s The Assignment with Audie Cornish and The CBC, and made impassioned appearances on CNN Tonight, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and KCRW’s Left, Right & Center.
Old Crow Medicine Show 2023 Tour Dates:
July 19 - Tucson, AZ @ Fox Tucson Theatre %
July 20 - San Diego, CA @ Humphreys Concerts by the Bay %
July 21 - Irvine, CA @ FivePoint Amphitheater +
July 22 - Chandler, AZ @ Chandler Center for the Arts %
July 23 - Flagstaff, AZ @ Pepsi Amphitheater %
July 28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field #
August 2 - Redmond, OR @ Deschutes County Fairgrounds
August 5 - Ninilchik, AK @ SalmonFest
August 12 - Edmonton, AB @ Edmonton Folk Festival (Gallagher Park)
August 23 – S Deerfield, MA @ Tree House Brewing Company & SOLD OUT
August 24 - Shelburne, VT @ Concerts on the Green $ SOLD OUT
August 25 - Bangor, ME @ Maine Savings Amphitheater +
August 26 - Gilford, NH @ Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion +
August 27 - Hammondsport, NY @ Point of the Bluff Vineyards $
September 6 - Marietta, OH @ Peoples Bank Theatre
September 7 - Cleveland Heights, OH @ Evans Amphitheater - Cain Park ^
September 8 - Mount Vernon, KY @ Renfro Valley Entertainment Center ^
September 9 - Shipshewana, IN @ Blue Gate PAC
September 16 - Louisville, KY @ Bourbon & Beyond
September 22 - Camden, NJ @ XPoNential Music Festival
September 23 - Ithaca, NY @ State Theatre
September 25 - Morgantown, WV @ WVU Canady Creative Arts Center
October 6 - Monterey, CA @ Rebels & Renegades Music Festival
October 21 - St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
October 30 - London, UK @ Hammersmith
November 1 - Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
November 2 - Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
December 30 - Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
December 31 - Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
+ with Hank Williams Jr.
% with Pillbox Patti
# with Luke Combs
& The Red Clay Strays
$ Brennen Leigh
^ Harper O’Neill
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