August 22, 2023 – Today, two-time GRAMMY award-winning band Old Crow Medicine Show released “One Drop” featuring Mavis Staples ahead of their new album Jubilee, out this Friday, August 25 via ATO Records. “One Drop” is a gospel-inspired romp that closes the 12-track album with a message of unity: “It takes one kind word to turn a stranger to a friend / It takes one ear to listen to each other / Just to hear one heartbeat in rhythm again.”
Watch the lyric video for “One Drop” via YouTube
“One Drop” was featured this morning at Consequence, who praised the “spiritually rich, uplifting tune” and said “The joyous, gospel-esque aspirations of ‘One Drop’ are immediately apparent…the track falls somewhere in between a classic folk standard, a contemporary church staple, and a country anthem.”
About the song, bandleader Ketch Secor explains: “For years Old Crow has always had a song or two on an album striving to sum up the need for a spiritual awakening, a rededication to ideals, and a sing-a-long tune for the campfire’s last dying ember. This is the latest in our canon of ‘songs of a spiritual persuasion,’ and, I think, one of our best, due in no small part to the presence of a legend of gospel music and more, the great Mavis Staples. Mavis epitomizes a life in roots music and Old Crow can only hope that the next 25 years will bring us, like she is, closer to the true vine.”
“One Drop” follows the release of “Belle Meade Cockfight” (feat. Sierra Ferrell) and 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.
Jubilee 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 are on tour for the rest of the year, culminating with their 16th annual New Year’s Eve run at the Ryman with shows on December 30 and 31. Find a full list of tour dates below or visit their website.
