Cory Younts talks Old Crow, New Tunes, and Big Tour

By Lauren Taylor Carr & Kevin Murphy Wilson • Photos Provided

In the autumn of 1998, bandleader Ketch Secor and some like-minded musicians were all roughly 20 years-old and seeking, as Secor puts it, “that Woody Guthrie kind of wandering experience,” busking and walking into joints in search of gigs. Along the way, the resulting collective, Old Crow Medicine Show, fashioned its own brand of string-band music, built a following, secured a recording contract, and famously finished a couple of previously unreleased songs for Bob Dylan [“Sweet Amarillo” and, most obviously, “Wagon Wheel”]. In 2009, the already established Americana performer Cory Younts jumped on board that old time train with OCMS and never looked back. We recently caught up with Younts for a three-way conversation to talk about his own backstory, the new Old Crow LP entitled Union Made [out this month] that features cameos from Del McCoury and Molly Tuttle, and the tour that lands them back at the Louisville Palace on June 28.

Lauren Taylor Carr: You handle a lot of duties onstage and in the studio [mandolin, keyboards, banjo, harmonica, vocals] but drums seem to be your primary instrument. When did you first start playing?

Cory Younts: “I grew up around a drum set, because my father was a drummer for [legendary country singer/songwriter] Mel Tillis in the 70s…they were some pretty wild guys! He stopped all of that by the time I was about 1 or 2 years-old, but he was still in the music business. And so I grew up around his Rogers drum kit, and I played the drums until I was about 18 or 19, and then went to college and started studying piano and stuff like that. You know, all I really knew was how to beat on something and drums are still one of my favorite instruments and one of my primaries.”

Kevin Murphy Wilson: What did you learn from your many travels and early collaborations with [the late great] Justin Townes Earle?

CY: “Oh man, you know, he was such a great guy and such a great songwriter. If you’re very lucky, you get to meet that one person that you just sing the best with. And for me it was Justin…not that I dislike singing with the guys in Old Crow or anything, but there’s a special blend that Justin and I had, and I really miss him.”

LTC: When did you transition into Old Crow Medicine Show and how did that happen?

CY: “Well, back to Justin, we were in a group called The Swindlers in the late 90s, early 2000s, and we were a busking band in Nashville. Then the Crows moved to Nashville around that time, and they were busking too, and we met them in downtown Nashville playing on a street corner…they were just incredible! They had a fiddle player and they were just great and could mesmerize an audience. It didn’t matter if you were on your way to something else, people would stop to watch them. So I became friends with them around the time they would play at The Station Inn [a world famous Bluegrass music hall and dive bar] in Nashville and went to pretty much all of those shows. I became really good friends with Willie Watson and the rest of the boys, and I didn’t officially join the band until 2009, but my very first gig with Old Crow was in 2003 actually.”

KMW: While explaining how “Wagon Wheel” came to be, Ketch told me once that he was too young and too dumb to know that he couldn’t just finish a song for Bob Dylan. Anyway, was it a fun challenge to later get invited to re-work and tour Dylan’s entire Blonde on Blonde album?

CY: “That was so fun! It was one of the funnest things I’ve ever got to do in my entire musical career, by far. If I go back and listen to that record, it doesn’t even seem like it’s us. I don’t even remember working that hard on it, I really don’t. That really wasn’t supposed to be this big tour that it turned out to be…it was supposed to be, like, we’re gonna do two nights in Nashville, they’re gonna film it, we’re gonna be done, and then we’re gonna go back on the road and do what we normally do. Then it turned out to be, like, every promoter in this country and other countries heard about it, and were like ‘Wait a minute, I wanna see that.’ So we went to the UK, we went to Australia…it was a blast! It just got better and better every night. We eventually had all of these skits involved in it. It really became more like a review than a regular concert. It was a real, real treat to do.”

LTC: Was there anything that made the recording process for the new Union Made LP special?

CY: “This is an interesting album because Morgan Jahnig [who usually plays upright bass for OCMS] produced this album and PJ George did all the bass playing on this album, which is the first time we’ve ever done anything like that. Morgan, I think, played on one track. But other than that, Morgan was behind the board and calling the shots, setting up the mics, and helping with the arrangements and stuff like that in our studio in Nashville. It’s a great record and I had a lot of fun making it!”

KMW: What can folks expect from your current road show that brings you back to Kentucky?

CY: “It’s still a rowdy show [LAUGHTER] and we’re still at it after all these years. I’m currently in New Mexico at a big ‘hippie festival’ we’re playing tonight. So yeah, we’re still movin’ and groovin’ and still on that one bus…making the miles.

We always look forward to going to Louisville, we really do. It’s just right up the road from Nashville, and we’ve played the Palace so many times that it feels like it’s just like another venue that’s part of Nashville…as big as that damn town is getting!”

LTC: The music business seems stranger than ever. In this day and age, and at this point in your career, how do you measure success?

CY: “Longevity! To me, especially in the country music world, an artist is usually only going to last until another ‘hot chick’ or another ‘goofy dude with a Solo Cup’ comes along. You know, I get mad about it, but I’m like, ‘Well, they’ll be gone in 3 years, then there will be another person who over-sings’... I get bitter about it, but then I realize I really enjoy where we are.

I’ll just keep making these miles and keep doing it like we’re doing it as long as I can. That’s the way I look at it anyway.”

For tickets and more info about the June 28 OCMS concert visit louisvillepalace.com.