The Nashville based string band Old Crow Medicine Show has released yet another single and live performance video in support of their upcoming album Paint This Town. The latest track, titled “Gloryland,” comes only a few days ahead of the release of the new album, which is scheduled to drop on April 22 through ATO records.
Musically, the new track shows a side of Old Crow Medicine show that mixes moments that feel melancholic with moments that feel triumphant. Like other tracks from the string band, the unique musical sound benefits from the broad range of instruments employed in the song. Watching the live performance video, you can see the wide set of instruments used in the track, including the presence of a beautiful harmonica used in a solo, a violin played by the lead singer, a backing chorus, a double bass and other instruments.
Frontman Ketch Secor has described the new track as a song that someone “writes ‘cause he’s freaked out by the state of the world he’s living in. He thinks he hears bullets flying by, thinks the bickering of his neighbors out in the street could, at any moment, escalate. Everywhere he turns there’s something else to fuel his anxiety: his leaders spew vitriol, his friends overdose, his city’s courthouse is set on fire. He’s scared, wants to run, tries every door, but the gates of Eden are locked shut.” Secor explains that eventually, his pleas and knocking on the door of Eden began to turn into music, “so he sings. Singing is the only thing that makes him feel better, well, maybe not better, but at least no longer helpless. Because singing gives you purpose.” The singer concludes by stating that he wrote the new track because he “didn’t know what the hell else to do.”
Watch the live performance video of Gloryland via YouTube below.
“Gloryland” follows the release of three previous singles released in anticipation of Paint This Town, “Bombs Away“, “Honey Chile” and title track “Paint This Town.”