August 2024 Edition
Howdy, Friend!
Thanks for reading this month’s newsletter! Now listen up. Do you hear that? Shh… All across the southland a familiar sound has settled over every city, town, and village. It's the shuffling of new sneakers rushing out the door, the whine of young voices insisting they’re not hungry for breakfast, the droll crackle of a banal school administrator's welcome over a PA system (do schools still have these?) Yes, all across the Volunteer State students teetering in encumbering backpacks await the unwelcome bell that tolls for summer's end: School is baaaack in session!! And while some Old Crows remain in willful oblivion to this seasonal transition (Cory, Mike, and PJ) it’s the Old Crows who are parents (Morgan, Dante, and me) who are breathing a collective sigh of relief that kids are back in class instead of at home expectantly waiting for us to produce an amazing summer of thrills for them like a Parisian summer games committee.
I remember these times so well, being a kid and watching summer’s centripetal disappearance like the last swallow from a bottle of Jolt Cola. It always struck me as odd that while Tennessee kids were headed back to class in 100 degree heat and humidity the rest of the country had 3 more weeks of summer. A quick Google search of “Why do kids down south go back to school so early” confirms my suspicion that agriculture's historic ties to child labor down south long ago set our summer calendar spinning. Maybe when my kids asked me what we are doing next summer I’ll say, "picking fruit, cutting tobacco, bailing cotton, and milking the herd." Reminds me of our song “We Don’t Grow Tobacco”, a soundrack to the decline in ag work for nimble fingers if there ever was one. However, my kids' summer soundtrack this year probably has a bit less old-time string band and a bit more Chapell Roan on it. (OCMS plays "H-O-T-T-O-G-O”) Whether they’re from North, South, East or West parents frequently reach out to me to say how much their kids love OCMS and I’m always overjoyed to hear this. One of my proudest accomplishments in our 25-year history is affecting a generation of youngsters, turning them on to traditional sounds, fostering in them a love of American music. I often joke with parents and say, “Don’t let your kids sing our cocaine songs on the playground.” But I also know that a little bawdy and/or ribald humor always appealed to me in a song lyric, especially at a young age. My favorite singer as a child was Barry Louis Polisar whose inappropriate kid’s song hits included my personal favorite “My Brother Threw Up On My Stuffed Toy Bunny”. Growing up, my favorite kid's album has got to be Marlo Thomas’ “Free To Be You and Me,” which I listened to again recently and it really stands up; she’s simply amazing and a lifelong activist, even at age 87. Other children’s music I always recommend is Woody Guthrie’s “20 Big Songs to Grow On” and John McCutcheon’s “Howjidoo”.
And as for children’s musical television programming, you can watch past-Old Crow dad turned Dylan-drummer Jerry Pentecost and I on Youtube TV’s kid series "Van Jam". Here we are with Anne and Lamb singing a song about encouragement for the young (and young at heart) called, “Help Is Right Around The Corner." When I was a kid growing up in Virginia I made my television debut working the phones for a WVPT telethon, so it was a source of continued pride for me when Old Crow Medicine Show partnered with PBS Kids a few years ago to write and produce a series of shorts for young people. Here, pop a straw in your favorite juicebox and have a look:
The songs were written by Critter Fuqua and me, and some with Chance McCoy (another proud past-Old Crow papa) after PBS Kids staff topic suggestions. My favorite of these is our song “A Little Zero” which follows the life of a lowly zero who finds he’s worth a whole lot more when in combination with other numbers. It was certainly a challenge to create a memorable 90-second about the exploits of an empty-quantity integer (See Mr. Feng I didn’t forget everything you taught me…) but the muse struck when Critter and I put our heads together and, together, we crafted one of my personal favorite songs I’ve ever co-written. The lyric goes:
"Oh I'm just a little zero
Going nowhere by myself
I’m just an empty circle
Who needs a little help
But put a number right beside me
And I’ll be on my way
Cause when it all adds
A little zero goes a long long way
I turned a dollar to a hundred dollar bill last night
Now all the other numbers want me by their side
This mighty little zero is the hero of the hour
Whoever thought that I had this kind of power
I'm not just a little zero
So close give me a shot
Stick me by your favorite number
And I’ll take you to the top
That’s not too shabby no
I’m worth a lot more than they say
Cause when it all adds up
A little zero goes a long long way”
Pretty good for a guy with a C minus math average all through high school, eh?! Well, that's my August newsletter for now as it’s time to get the kids of Tennessee out from the fields and into the classroom. Wherever your children are may the back-to-school spirit find them happy, healthy, and well. Meanwhile, summer is not yet over for the rest of us, as our tour schedule reminds me. If you haven’t yet had the chance to see one of our 25th anniversary show’s on this year OCMS Jubilee Tour please make plans to come out! You won’t be disappointed. And bring your kids while you’re at it. We love to see ‘em dancing in the front row. Just maybe cover their ears when we sing the cocaine songs...
Take Care,
Ketcham
