Old Crow Medicine Show frontman Ketch Secor shares his new single “Catch Me If You Can,” the next offering from his debut solo album Story The Crow Told Me, out July 11 on Equal Housing Records via Firebird Music. Featuring Old Crow alums Critter Fuqua and Willie Watson on backing vocals, the song grapples with the life of a hard-touring musician and arrives with a music video co-starring singer-songwriter Gowa Gibbs.
About the new song, Secor says: “Twenty-seven years ago when I started Old Crow I couldn’t have imagined how people I loved could ever turn into people I once loved. But so are the highs and lows of life on the road in a band. The conditions are right for a few things to thrive and a few more to falter, and ultimately fail. Friendships, allegiances, marriages, these are often the casualties of a life like the one I chose and yet I can’t go back and make it any different, nor would I.”
He continues, “Ever since I was young, people have inevitably made a pun with my name. From Catcher In The Rye to Heinz vs. Huntz, I tell ya life ain’t easy for a boy named Ketcham. One phrase I always heard was ‘Catch Me if You Can.’ Well, last spring when I was going through this catharsis of playing back the hands of time in the proverbial rearview mirror, I sat down with Jody Stevens and wrote this song in a short bittersweet burst. I wanted to explore the feeling of sacrifice that it takes to love someone like me. Someone who probably is going to miss your birthday party because I’m going to be playing a show in Newfoundland, Newark, New Orleans, or Newport News. I hope it was worth it.”
“Catch Me If You Can” follows the “gritty” (Rolling Stone) lead single “Dickerson Road,” a tribute to East Nashville’s boulevard of broken dreams featuring guitar from The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston. Recorded at his own Hartland Studios and co-written/produced with Jody Stevens (Luke Bryan, Jake Owens), Story The Crow Told Me finds Secor reflecting on a quarter century spent in Music City and beyond with an album that is equal parts coming-of-age story, road-warrior autobiography, and love letter to the city that watched him grow into a man.
In addition to appearances from Fuqua and Watson, the album also features cameos from Molly Tuttle and Marty Stuart, as well as poignant samples from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. With these 12 songs, Secor showcases the full range of his musical talents – playing nearly a dozen instruments across the album and co-writing every track. Skilled in reinterpreting the sounds of the past for today’s audience, he sets the past 25 years of his music-making life to a new soundtrack.
In between Old Crow Medicine Show tour dates, Secor will hit the road for his solo Story The Crow Told Me Tour this July, before jumping on the Railroad Revival Tour with Mumford & Sons and Friends in August as a member of the “house band” along with Celisse, Chris Thile, Leif Vollebekk, Lucius, Madison Cunningham, Nathaniel Rateliff and Trombone Shorty.