The band is in town to play a showcase at the South by Southwest Music Festival.
Like the post-Civil War medicine shows that entertained towns across the country, Old Crow Medicine Show
rolled into Austin Tuesday to entertain at SXSW. News 8 Austin will follow the band members throughout their stay in Austin.
Within seconds of parking, the five band members were unpacking to perform at a private party at Stubb's Barbecue.
The band formed in 1998, when the members, from different parts of the country, came together and set out on their first road tour.
"The band was basically formed as a road act. We hadn't known all the players before. In fact, we had never played a tune together," said Ketch Secor, who sings and plays the fiddle and harmonica.
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Meet the crow
Find out more about the band News 8 Austin will follow throughout SXSW.
 
In concert
Watch the band perform a selection of songs at Stubb's.
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But that soon changed. They quickly learned a lot about each other and how to perform as one act.
"We went away for three months. It felt like three years, like a hundred years older or something," said Willie Watson who sings and plays guitar.
With Watson singing lead vocals and on guitar, Secor singing lead, playing guitar and the harmonica, Austin born Critter Fuqua singing and playing banjo, Kevin Hayes with the guito, and Morgan Jahnig on the doghouse bass, these guys play some of the earliest traditions of American music.
Their tunes come from jug bands, traveling shows, dance halls, Appalachian string music and Memphis blues. It's called Roots Music because it's the foundation of country, rap, and rock'n'roll.
Not only do the band members bring old tunes back to life, they give them new life.
"I think we give the music a youthful sort of energy and a fresh energy," Fuqua said.
The youthful sounds are for everyone.
"You can stomp your foot to it. You can dance. It's fun, it's fun music everybody can relate to it somehow," Hayes said.
And it seems as though everybody does. The band is attracting crowds of all ages.
"Old ladies think we're cute. People our age think we're interesting and we have something new to say. People in their middle ages remember the folk revival of the '60s," Secor said.
Helping the audience to relive memories is what this band enjoys doing.
"Being up there and doing my best to do justice to these old dead men, people coming up saying, 'That's a song my grandma used to listen to,' it's all of that," Jahnig said.
The Nashville-based band will hit Texas this week bringing tunes that will have Texans stomping their boots.
The Old Crow Medicine Show will play in Houston and New Braunfels this week before their showcase. On Saturday, they'll play at 11 p.m. at Aussie's on Barton Springs.
