Gig review: Old Crow Medicine | Dave Rawlings Machine

Published on Monday 13 September 2010 20:40

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW / DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE ABC, GLASGOW ****

Dave Rawlings is best known for playing second banjo to his partner Gillian Welch but Dave Rawlings Machine is his opportunity to take charge and, in this support slot to his friends, associates and sometime bandmates Old Crow Medicine Show, it looked like he might run away with all the glory.

Welch was present and attempting to keep a low profile in the ensemble but there was no hiding the excitement of the crowd at her presence. And who was that unassuming older gentleman on mandolin? No less than John Paul Jones of Led-freakin'-Zeppelin, just getting on with business.

Rawlings wears his illustrious connections lightly. He's not a particularly commanding vocalist and more of an accidental frontman, but his renditions of traditional and original material – including a seamless medley of Old Crow's I Hear Them All and Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land – were woven into a mellifluous, nicely textured symphony of strings and unobtrusive vocal harmonies.

In the end, it wasn't that difficult for Old Crow Medicine Show to steal back the thunder simply by bringing the energy and the banter. The six-piece opened their vibrant, witty hoedown clustered round one microphone for a lusty rendition of the traditional British sea shanty Hog-Eye Man. They had done their local homework too, peppering their set with Glaswegian references and rustling up a "killin' song" to mark their sojourn in the city.

Their transatlantic party continued with a hell-for-leather rendition of Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread, crowd singalongs to CC Rider and their own Wagon Wheel and a massed finale, involving Rawlings, Welch and JPJ, of The Band's The Weight.