Old Crow Medicine Show Announce Union Made Out June 5

Photo: Courtesy of Old Crow Medicine Show

Two-time GRAMMY-winning string band Old Crow Medicine Show has announced the June 5 release of their new album Union Made on Hartland Records via Firebird Music. Produced by longtime bandmember Morgan Jahnig and recorded in their own East Nashville studio, Union Made finds the group reflecting upon the people, places, and stories of a country on the brink of its 250th birthday.

The debut single “My Side Of The Mountain” is a generation-spanning collaboration co-written by bandleader Ketch Secor, Molly Tuttle, and Luke Combs, and featuring bluegrass legends Del McCoury and Ronnie McCoury.

Watch the “My Side Of The Mountain” visualizer
Stream “My Side Of The Mountain”
Pre-order / Pre-save Union Made

Ketch Secor on the new single: “Molly Tuttle and I got together with Luke Combs to write this song. Both Luke and I owe a lot to the scenic town of Boone, high in the hills of westernmost North Carolina where the song is set. Another musician with deep roots in the area is Bluegrass legend Del McCoury. ‘My Side of the Mountain’ celebrates the distinct culture and sound of the Appalachian people of WNC, some of our country’s most self-reliant folk. This song is for them.”

Union Made is Old Crow Medicine Show’s most collaborative project to date, featuring appearances from nearly a dozen guests including Maggie Rose, Turnpike Troubadours’ Evan Felker, Jesse Welles, John Carter Cash, and Ana Cristina Cash. It feels appropriate to hear so many different voices joining together on an album about union, one about the rich tapestry of exuberance, sorrow, victory, and failure that forms the American experience. Even so, this is unmistakably the work of Old Crow Medicine Show.

The band has spent more than a quarter century blending the vernacular traditions of old-school America — including mountain music, bluegrass, old-time, and folk — into modern songs for country dwellers and city slickers alike. Their music acts as a cultural bridge, connecting the past with the present.

Inspired by the band’s nearly 30-year trek from the street corners of Western North Carolina to the nation’s most celebrated stages, Union Made is a love letter to the America that was, the America that is, and the America that could be.

“This is a fascinating time in our short history as a nation,” Secor says. “We wanted to meet that moment by collecting a bunch of songs that speak to the joys and potentials, the rights and the wrongs of where we are today, where we’re going, and what can embolden us to have a more perfect union in the future. There are wonderful, ghostly American sounds that only bands steeped in folk music traditions know how to conjure, and it seems like an important time for those voices to be heard.”

Union Made follows Old Crow Medicine Show’s first-ever holiday album OCMS XMAS, which released in December to widespread acclaim from The New York Times, NPR’s Fresh Air, and Billboard, with appearances on CBS This Morning, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and World Cafe.

The band celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2023 with the Grammy-nominated album Jubilee and performed an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Last summer, Ketch Secor released his first solo album Story The Crow Told Me and made his debut as the new host of the long-running Nashville PBS travel and culture series Tennessee Crossroads.

Old Crow Medicine Show also recently announced the first-ever vinyl release of their 2006 sophomore album Big Iron World, remastered by producer David Rawlings. The band has been on the road this year performing the album in full for their Back to the Roots Tour, culminating in a main stage performance at MerleFest this weekend.

In addition to multiple appearances across the festival, the band is producing a special late-night Grand Ole Opry show on site — conceived, curated, and hosted by Ketch Secor.

Next month, they hit the road on a tour across the country with stops in Boston, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Boulder, Louisville, and more. Find more information at crowmedicine.com/tour.

Union Made Tracklist

1. Howdy Do America ft. Jesse Welles
2. Lincoln Highway
3. My Side Of The Mountain ft. Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury & Molly Tuttle
4. Revolution Now ft. Evan Felker
5. Last American Waltz
6. Merrimack & Monitor
7. Rainbow Stew
8. Rye Whiskey
9. Beautiful Land ft. Maggie Rose & Lee Oskar
10. Lewis and Clark
11. Y’all All Come ft. John Carter Cash & Ana Cristina Cash
12. For What It’s Worth

Colorado Dates

May 15 — Bellvue, CO — Mishawaka Amphitheatre
May 17 — Boulder, CO — Boulder Theater
July 14 — Colorado Springs, CO — Pikes Peak Center
July 25 — Morrison, CO — Red Rocks Amphitheatre