Old Crow Medicine Show Give ‘Old Town Road’ the Americana Treatment at Bonnaroo [Watch]
"Old Town Road" is reaching all corners of music, even traditional country and Americana. Lil Nas X's massive hit got the Old Crow Medicine Show treatment when the six-piece band performed their own rendition of the track on the Grand Ole Opry stage at the 2019 Bonnaroo Festival on Thursday (June 13).
The beloved group steps outside its comfort zone, turning the country trap jam into a bluegrass-leaning pickathon. Instrumentally, the song is almost unrecognizable, as the band's interpretation focuses on banjo, guitar, fiddle and stand up bass, while lead singer Ketch Secor delivers the lyrics at a more uptempo pace as the rest of the band provides background harmonies. Their interpretation also features an extended fiddle solo before ending the performance by abandoning their instruments and leading a full audience singalong.
Lil Nas X took the stage at 2019 CMA Fest when he and Billy Ray Cyrus performed the song at Nissan Stadium, along with a surprise appearance by Keith Urban. Old Crow Medicine Show's embracing the song is another example of how it's making a mark on country music. "Old Town Road" celebrated its tenth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Monday (June 10). The last artist to sit in the coveted spot for the same duration of time was Drake with "In My Feelings" in 2018.
After the song was removed from the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in March, as it was deemed not to contain enough elements for it to be considered country, Cyrus hopped on the track for the new rendition, saying that fans are the important factor behind a song's success regardless of genre. "If they dig it, then it's country...It was about people driving the song, not about a critic saying, 'No, this doesn’t fit our rule book,'" he explains.
Cyrus and the dynamic Atlanta-based artist will also perform "Old Town Road" at the 2019 BET Awards on June 23.
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