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Today Old Crow Medicine Show shares their new single “Belle Meade Cockfight” featuring singer/songwriter Sierra Ferrell. Accompanied by a campy old-school-hoedown music video (watch above) directed and produced by band member Morgan Jahning, “Belle Meade Cockfight” is the latest track from the band’s new album Jubilee, which releases August 25 via ATO Records.
“My hometown is the self-proclaimed poultry capital of the world, smack in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia,” explains bandleader Ketch Secor. “I love chickens, have raised ’em from under the lightbulb to the brooder box, and I see their grace and beauty. Poultry makes fantastic fodder for song, always has. I can’t admit to having regularly attended cockfights, only that chickens are in my blood. But songwriting lets you travel the seven seas without leaving your porch swing, or in this case the cockfight ring, so I composed this ditty after extensive research and hope I’ve done right by the scholars of the sport.” He continues, “I called up Sierra Ferrell and told her I had a ‘cockfight love song’ and needed a sparring partner. Not surprising, she was game. She’s from just over the line in West Virginia and knows a thing or two about the joys of chickens. We dedicate this one to Sarah Cannon, the opulent southern dame behind Minnie Pearl’s folksy persona. Sarah embodied class duality in Country music as only a Shakespearian actress-turned-hayseed-rib-tickler could. The only thing I can think of that better exemplifies Country music’s ability to be at once ‘highfalutin’ and ‘for the people’ would be if they started holding cockfights on Saturday nights in old Belle Meade.”
“Belle Meade Cockfight” follows the album’s debut single “Miles Away,” a sweetly reflective song co-written by Secor and bluegrass virtuoso Molly Tuttle, with guest vocals from Old Crow Medicine Show co-founder Willie Watson.
In addition to Watson and Ferrell, Jubilee also features legendary soul singer Mavis Staples. The album finds Old Crow Medicine Show once again co-producing with Matt Ross-Spang (Drive-By Truckers, St. Paul & the Broken Bones) and recording at their own Hartland Studios. As they gear up to celebrate their 25th anniversary, the band doubles down on their commitment to creating roots music that bears an undeniable urgency, encompassing everything from jug-band tunes to Irish folk songs to exultant gospel jams. The result is a wildly expansive body of work showcasing the dazzling musicality and poetic yet powerfully trenchant storytelling that has made Old Crow Medicine Show one of the most potent and influential forces in American roots music.
