In the press materials for Union Made, Old Crow Medicine Show frontman and fiddler Ketch Secor talks about missing out on the party that was the United States’ bicentennial celebration in 1976. Born in 1978, he encountered leftover Spirit of 1776 memorabilia in antique stores and pawn shops growing up and was determined to be a part of the next big American party. Even though the country’s mood and tenor changed drastically after Donald Trump’s second election in 2024, Secor plowed ahead with the idea of making a record dedicated to celebrating America.
These press materials also include Secor musing on his band’s 25-plus years of travelling across the United States. He mentions that with all those years of touring, he feels he has a better perspective on the country’s full tapestry than any politician or CEO. Old Crow Medicine Show are based in Nashville, which allows Union Made to feature a bevy of guest performers from across the bluegrass, country, and roots music worlds. All of these experiences and relationships lead to what may be the most challenging record in the band’s career, although it clearly isn’t intended as such. At a moment when the Trump Administration is attempting an authoritarian, fascist takeover of the country, Old Crow Medicine Show have decided to urge their listeners to ignore all of that and try to get along with each other.
To be fair, Old Crow Medicine Show, with their focus on early 20th-century stylings and tendency to write joyful hoedown-esque party songs, is uniquely equipped to make a record celebrating the United States’ 250th birthday. This is also why they may be equally ill-equipped to start making overly political statements suddenly. Union Made is at its best when they aren’t trying to do the latter.
“Lincoln Highway” is a country barnburner of a road song, upbeat and fun. Asleep at the Wheel‘s Ray Benson is the guest on this one, and he does a perfect 1970’s CB radio trucker voice. “My Side of the Mountain” features bluegrass legends Ronny and Del McCoury on vocals, and country artist Luke McCombs as a co-writer. Current bluegrass star (and Secor’s significant other) Molly Tuttle is also here on guitar and vocals. The track is an energetic, minor-key bluegrass stomper extolling the virtues of rural Appalachian life. Secor’s fiddle and Tuttle’s clawhammer guitar really stand out, with virtuoso passages from each of them.
The group also explore American history on a pair of songs. “Merrimack & Monitor” tells the story of the Civil War battle between two ironclad boats. The song is essentially a sea shanty, with Secor’s fiddle and Mike Harris’ banjo taking center stage, and it features a strong group vocal. “Lewis and Clark” relates the tale of the explorers in the most upbeat, jaunty fashion possible. It seems to take its inspiration from the classic song “The Battle of New Orleans”. The song sounds silly, but the story is about as accurate as one can get in three short musical verses.
The beautiful “Last American Waltz” begins as a wistful tribute to the final songs of a long night out. Secor and Tuttle duet together, and it’s lovely, as Secor calls out, “Can anybody hear / The last American waltz?” In the later verses, Secor talks about the hollowing out of small towns. “This hammer don’t ring / This cannon don’t roar / This train bound for glory don’t stop here no more.”
Opening track “Howdy Do America”, by contrast, is such a gee-whiz, aw shucks Stephen Foster meets Woody Guthrie song (But only the child-friendly first half of “This Land is Your Land”, not the part about how private property is bad and seeing people standing in line at the welfare office) that it almost feels like an intentional parody. Secor sings about happily greeting everyone he meets while name-checking as many states as possible.
The two cover songs on the album also occupy interesting spaces. Merle Haggard‘s “Rainbow Stew”, originally released in 1981, is essentially a progressive fantasy of the future. The lyrics talk about the end of gasoline-powered cars, the promise of solar power, and the reduction of air pollution. The Old Crow Medicine Show version also mentions a female President. Yet the album closes with a version of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”, maybe American pop music’s most famous song to passionately agitate for everyone to stop being so angry.
This is emblematic of the record. Musically, Union Made is just as accomplished and fun as anything else Old Crow Medicine Show have done in their long career. There’s a wide variety of styles here, and the playing is impeccable. It’s only in the lyrics that things start to get questionable. Secor stakes his claim in the squishy center of our political discourse, starting with examples of people from disparate backgrounds getting along before eventually curdling completely.
“Rye Whiskey”, with multi-instrumentalist Cory Younts on lead vocals, is a high-energy ode to the titular drink. “Despite our differences / We can find a common thread / Stitching together both sides,” is the core of the second verse. “Beautiful Land” occupies similar territory: “People take a chance on each other / And see, what a beautiful land this might be.” It’s a lovely 1970s-style pop-soul track featuring Maggie Rose on guest vocals and a full horn section. These sentiments are relatively innocuous, general kinds of “Hey, we can do better” lyrics. They mostly accomplish their goal of telling listeners that coming together is a real possibility.
This lands Old Crow Medicine Show, finally, at “All Y’all Come”. Featuring Ana Cristina and John Carter Cash, this is where Secor decides to scold everyone and minimize the current level of conflict. Over a pleasant, beachy ballad featuring Latin percussion and slack-stringed guitars, Secor tells the listener to “Lay down some of them rattling sabers” and “You’re driving us all into ruin / With all y’all’s redding and blueing.” The chorus finds him opining, “Y’all love the same mama and if she were here / She’d grab y’all both by the ear real hard and tell y’all / Y’all all come together.” It continues in this vein before exasperatedly sighing, near the end, “And look here / I ain’t saying you’ve got to be best buddies.”
Because “All Y’All Come” is a song and not an essay, there isn’t any room for nuance. Secor seems to posit himself as the only one with common sense, and anyone with political opinions as just children pointlessly squabbling. This is a hell of a position to take in 2026, and it seems like listeners of nearly any political stripe could find it insulting.
Ketch Secor’s insistence on making a “Hooray for America!” record ends up putting Old Crow Medicine Show in an awkward position. Union Made has some really great songs, and it’s fun to hear all these different guest stars meshing so easily with the band. Old Crow, with all their years of touring North America under their belt, are probably in a better position than most to judge that most people aren’t so different, regardless of political leanings. The songs that address this seem a tad optimistic at the present moment. “All Y’All Come”, however, with its reductiveness, leaves a lasting impression that casts a pall over the rest of the album.