Old Crow Medicine Show held a bittersweet New Year’s Eve concert at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium where they said goodbye to Christopher “Critter” Fuqua, who helped found the band 21 years ago along with fiddle player Ketch Secor.
While Fuqua’s departure will signal a new era for Old Crow, this is not the first lineup change the band has experienced in its career, or even this year. Earlier in 2019, guitarist Chance McCoy left the group and was replaced by solo artist Charlie Worsham, who joined the group as an adjunct member. The band was also joined on New Year’s Eve by Nashville drummer Jerry Pentecost, who has also joined Old Crow on a live contingency.
As “Critter” Fuqua tells Rolling Stone,
Leaving Old Crow is one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make … These men that I’ve played with for 21 years are not only band mates but dear, dear friends, brothers in arms. Old Crow is more than a band, it’s a spiritual being with many entities that have flowed through it since its inception in 1998. It’s my path that I flow out again, but all the folks that have played with Old Crow, worked with Old Crow, managed Old Crow, booked Old Crow, and loved Old Crow will always be family. Family is eternal.
Secor and Fuqua began writing music together in 7th grade and learned to play their instruments together, as well. While Secor acknowledges that Old Crow has had numerous lineup changes throughout the years, he maintains that Fuqua’s voice and musical contributions will always be a part of the band the two started together.
This will mark Fuqua’s second departure from the band, after taking a five-year gap from Old Crow starting in 2007. He would return in 2012 just before the release of Carry Me Back, the group’s fourth studio album. Old Crow Medicine Show’s current lineup now includes Secor, Pentecost, Joe Andrews, Morgan Jahnig, Robert Price, Cory Younts, and Worsham.
Old Crow Medicine Show has no shows scheduled until late February when they will play two shows in North Carolina and one in Norfolk, VA. Afterward, they embark on the traveling Country To Country show with Darius Rucker, Olo Dominion, and Runaway Jane which will take the ensemble throughout the United Kingdom. Tickets are available on their website.
[H/T Rolling Stone]