Old Crow Medicine Show bandleader issues statement after FreshGrass cancellation

FreshGrass Festival / All photos: Clayton Taylor

The bandleader of Old Crow Medicine Show has issued an apology to fans after the band cancelled its FreshGrass performance just hours before they were set to play.

The inaugural FreshGrass event was held Friday and Saturday (Oct. 1-2) at the Momentary in Bentonville.

The festival was first planned for 2020, but was put on hold due to the pandemic. While all attendees this year were required to show either proof of vaccination or provide negative COVID-19 test results, the virus still had an impact on the event.

Attendees were notified before the start of The Steep Canyon Rangers’ set on Friday that headliners Old Crow Medicine Show would not be performing due to a member of the band’s crew testing positive for COVID-19.

Ketch Secor, bandleader for Old Crow, later penned a statement about the incident and shared the message with the Flyer through the band’s publicist at Missing Piece Group.

Secor’s statement is below:

I wish to make a heartfelt apology. This Friday night people from across the region, and in from out of state gathered in downtown Bentonville, AR to see Old Crow Medicine Show at the Fresh Grass Festival. While enroute, just hours before our headlining slot we learned that a close member of our crew had tested positive for COVID. Although everyone in Old Crow is vaccinated, breakthrough cases are a real and present danger. Our band works together like a family does with a strong sense of trust, testing regularly, and masking in most if not all public spaces whenever we’re not in front of the microphone. But a tour bus is a tight space and we are often crammed closely together, so learning that we’d been exposed to COVID throughout the day made us very concerned about causing further transmission. We take seriously our responsibility not to spread the virus. That’s why it was so incredibly hard not to honor a responsibility we take just as seriously: that which we owe to our fans, and to the communities we play in, to make good on our pledge as performers to perform. So I’m sorry Bentonville. We LOVE the towns we’re privileged to play in as we LOVE the concert goers assembled. And we know communities like yours LOVE throwing a big party for one and for all, bringing people together, and celebrating music and the arts. Right now every musician out there is frantically wondering how to keep the music going during COVID’S continued presence in our world. However, it was OCMS’s decision alone to cancel this gig, and here’s what made that decision the hardest: knowing that you guys were all out there, excited, riled up and ready for a good time, that you’d traveled and spent your money and gotten hotel rooms, and brought the kids out or gotten a sitter and so much more….all for the purpose of hearing a good show, so you could dance and smile and maybe sing along, have a great night in a great town with great friends, and maybe forget about COVID for just a little while. And instead of that we jerked you away from all the fun and joy of Friday night in the Ozarks and reminded you instead of the terrible reality of the global pandemic we’re fighting. We are so sorry we couldn’t play for you last night. We had a special show planned. We’ve been playing in this region for 20 years now, building our reputation as a wild night of fiddling and entertaining, and this show was going to be our biggest gig in Razorback Country ever. We had planned on making everybody feel special who came out to see us at Fresh Grass and of that I’m certain, NW Arkansas. So, again, I’m so sorry Bentonville. We had to go home and get tested and make sure we were safe, so that we can you keep you safe, so that we can keep each other safe. Please, pretty please, allow us to come back to your wonderful community, tested and safe, and ready to show you a good time. Please let us come back and show you the fun we’d had planned up until literally hours before we walked onstage.

Here are a few photos from the festival this weekend captured by our friend and photographer, Clayton Taylor.

Billy Strings

Billy Strings / Photo: Clayton Taylor

Billy Strings / Photo: Clayton Taylor

Billy Strings / Photo: Clayton Taylor

Billy Strings / Photo: Clayton Taylor

Billy Strings / Photo: Clayton Taylor


Trombone Shorty

Trombone Shorty / Photo: Clayton Taylor

Trombone Shorty / Photo: Clayton Taylor

Trombone Shorty / Photo: Clayton Taylor


Steep Canyon Rangers

Steep Canyon Rangers / Photo: Clayton Taylor

Steep Canyon Rangers / Photo: Clayton Taylor

Steep Canyon Rangers / Photo: Clayton Taylor