DTH: Can you explain the distinct sound of the music you play?
Ketch Secor: It’s kind of like a Brunswick stew. We take a little bit of traditional square dance music from the early part of the 20th century, and we’ll throw in some blues and jug band music from the ’20s and ’30s from the black tradition of hillbilly music. We’ll throw in some R & B from the ’50s that will get your toes tapping, and then there’s always a little Elvis in everything. And then you round it all out with something that is truly your own, some original song material, writing songs that are contemporary. We like those layers and we like to have them exposed.
DTH: You sing about North Carolina often. What’s your connection to the state?
KS: We’ve been playing music in North Carolina as the Old Crow for 10 or 12 years. So many of the great bands of the 1920s and ’30s that contributed to the cause of hillbilly music and especially blues music, came from your state.
DTH: Old-timey music requires lots of different instruments. What will you personally be playing?
KS: I’ll be picking a banjo and playing fiddle, harmonica and guitar. What’s great about the Old Crow is that we can pass it left or pass it right to keep the tune going. We all play each other’s instruments.
DTH: In Memorial Hall there’s not much room for dancing. Do you think the students should just tear the seats out and dance anyway?
KS: You would think for $22,000 a year they would give you a nice dance floor. I’m always about tearing seats out.
DTH: You guys sing a lot about the struggles of the down-and-out and especially working Americans. How does your music respond to those struggles?
