The Grammy-winning string band return to the songs, rooms and spirit that launched their career, performing their first two albums in full in an intimate stripped-back setting.
by Paul Cashmere
Old Crow Medicine Show have announced The O.C.M.S. Big Iron World Tour Back To The Roots, a run of intimate performances designed to reconnect the band with the music and environments that shaped their early years. The tour will focus entirely on the group’s first two albums, O.C.M.S. and Big Iron World, performed front to back in a pared-down configuration that puts songwriting, harmony and musicianship at the centre of the experience.
The tour begins on March 18 at Nashville’s Station Inn, a venue deeply embedded in the city’s acoustic and bluegrass history and a fitting starting point for a project rooted in memory and tradition. From there, the band will travel through the American South and Appalachia, revisiting towns and theatres closely linked to the band’s formative journey from street corners to international acclaim.
Released in 2004, O.C.M.S. marked Old Crow Medicine Show’s arrival as a recording act, capturing the raw energy they had honed through years of busking and relentless touring. Its follow-up, Big Iron World in 2006, expanded that foundation, blending old-time string band traditions with a modern sensibility that helped define what would later be recognised as the Americana movement. Songs from those records have endured not only because of their craft, but because they carry a sense of place, community and lived experience that remains central to the band’s identity.
Frontman Ketch Secor has reflected on the passage of time between those early recordings and the present, noting that more than two decades have passed since the release of O.C.M.S., with Big Iron World now approaching its own milestone anniversary.
Those albums were created in collaboration with David Rawlings and with the creative presence of Gillian Welch nearby, a combination that proved pivotal in shaping the sound and confidence of the young band. At the time, Old Crow Medicine Show stood somewhat outside the Nashville mainstream, a string band driven by fiddles and banjos during a period when such instrumentation was far from fashionable in commercial country music.
That outsider position would ultimately become their strength. Old Crow Medicine Show emerged as a bridge between pre-war folk traditions and a new generation of listeners, helping to push American roots music into wider consciousness. Their interpretation of traditional forms, combined with original songwriting, laid groundwork that countless artists would later build upon. The return to O.C.M.S. and Big Iron World on this tour is less an exercise in nostalgia than a reaffirmation of the values that have sustained the band for nearly three decades.
The Back To The Roots concept also reflects the band’s long-standing relationship with live performance spaces. Many of the venues on the itinerary echo the rooms where Old Crow Medicine Show first learned how songs connect when delivered without artifice. By stripping arrangements back to their essentials, the band aims to foreground the emotional weight and storytelling that originally carried these songs from Appalachian porches to global stages.
In recent years, Old Crow Medicine Show have continued to expand their catalogue and profile. Their 2023 album Jubilee, released to mark the band’s 25th anniversary, earned a Grammy nomination and reaffirmed their relevance well into their third decade. In 2024, they made their long-awaited NPR Tiny Desk Concert debut, while Secor also released his solo album Story The Crow Told Me, further exploring his role as a chronicler of American life and music.
Late in 2025, the band released OCMS XMAS, their first holiday album, demonstrating yet again their willingness to engage tradition while creating something personal and contemporary. Across all these projects, the through-line remains clear, a deep respect for the past paired with an insistence on keeping the music alive and evolving.
The O.C.M.S. Big Iron World Tour Back To The Roots offers audiences a rare opportunity to hear the songs that started it all, performed in a manner that reflects how they were first conceived. For a band whose legacy is built on the power of shared musical experience, the tour stands as both a celebration and a recommitment.
Tour Dates
March 18, Nashville TN, Station Inn
March 19, Boone NC, Appalachian Theatre
March 20, Knoxville TN, Tennessee Theatre
March 21, Charlotte NC, Neighborhood Theatre
March 22, Asheville NC, The Orange Peel
March 31, Wilmington NC, Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre
April 1, Charleston SC, Charleston Gaillard Center
April 2, Athens GA, Georgia Theatre
April 3, Savannah GA, Lucas Theatre For The Arts
April 4, Atlanta GA, Variety Playhouse
April 24, Wilkesboro NC, MerleFest
April 25, Wilkesboro NC, MerleFest
Tickets go on sale Friday January 23 at 10am local time via the band’s official website.
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