Artist: Old Crow Medicine Show
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Gloryland”
Album: Paint This Town
Release Date: April 22, 2022
Label: ATO Records
In Their Words: “Since the panic of March 2020 and the long months that followed I found a whole lot of reasons to sing louder and more lustily than before. I’ve always believed that music is a rallying cry, not an opiate. I’ve always believed the best songs are work songs; songs that give you the strength to stoop, to shovel, songs that engage your core, bring out your hustle.
“When the long work-less summer of 2020 came, my band refused to stand idle. While protests raged in cities across the nation, Old Crow recommitted ourselves to the work at hand, to make music that both inspires and challenges a listener, music that hits you in your heart and mind, not just your feet. We rebuilt our band just like we wanted to see our world rebuilt, with care and intention, with purpose.
“‘Gloryland’ is one of those types of songs a guy writes ‘cause he’s freaked out by the state of the world he’s living in. He thinks he hears bullets flying by, thinks the bickering of his neighbors out in the street could, at any moment, escalate. Everywhere he turns there’s something else to fuel his anxiety: his leaders spew vitriol, his friends overdose, his city’s courthouse is set on fire. He’s scared, wants to run, tries every door, but the gates of Eden are locked shut. Maybe they always were. He starts banging, ‘Let me in, let me in!’ Pretty soon his desperate hammering starts to feel like a rhythm and so he sings. Singing is the only thing that makes him feel better, well, maybe not better, but at least no longer helpless. Because singing gives you purpose. And with purpose there is hope, which may be all you can muster in times like these. I hope you’ll like my song ‘Gloryland’; I wrote it because I didn’t know what the hell else to do.” — Ketch Secor, Old Crow Medicine Show
Photo Credit: Kit Wood
