The Old Crow Medicine Show in Cobb

Friday evening we went to Mableton, Georgia, in south Cobb County to the Concert Pavilion to behind the historic Mable House to see a concert of the Old Crow Medicine Show.

Man! Did they put on a good show!!! The band is five young men with very high strung musical energy plucking out one song after another. I think it has the grass roots of bluegrass music but they extended it far beyond that…. They crept in the Negro Spiritual rhythm, the Blues Rhythm, the jazzy blues, and even one song was to be much like Bob Dylan’s “I an’t Gonna Work On Maggie’s Farm No More” combined with Charlie Daniel’s fiddle duel with the Devil. They were good!

At one time during the concert when the audience area was very dark people scattered all over were holding up some kind of light. I thought it was probably some kind of spiritual moment and they were holding up some kind of electric candle - until I focused. They were all holding up their cell phones trying to get a picture. A sign specifically said no photography, no cell phones. Well, the rule of sitting in the seat you paid for had already been broken - why not?

Once a girl came down to the bottom of the steps, which meant she was just two or three rows from us and begin to dance to their music. Who did she think she was putting a show on for? The band members? No, the audience area was dark, they couldn't see her? Her friends? No, same reason. I think the only people who could see her were us - she was blocking our few... self-centered bitch... we didn't buy expensive tickets and specified the little Mapleton chick with long hair will be dancing in front of us won't she? We hollered and told her to get her ass out of the way.

It seems the band members had a good rapport between themselves, plus they complemented each other.


We got to the Pavilion about 7:25 and the concert was to start at 8:00. There were very few people there. The volunteer usher with a red jacket on led us down to the our seats which were on the 3rd row, on the end. As people begin to drift in our whole row remained empty, except us of course. There was a center aisle going up to higher seats. If we were sitting next to the center aisle we would be looking head onto the Old Crow Medicine Show. I went and asked another usher in a red coat, this one, a courtly tall gentleman with white hair, who just happened to remind me of Foghorn Leghorn, of the Henry Hawk cartoons, would he mind if we moved closer to the center if no one came to claim those seats. He said go right ahead now.

We did.

Then, I think he might have talked to the head usher and told suggested that it would look better if people would come closer and get better seats…. Suddenly, people from all over the place were coming in closer

I think we did get somebody’s seat but by then somebody got the seats we left, and the people that I think we got their seat, sat behind us, which was slightly higher, so their seats were better too…. I joked with Anna, saying the ushers trying to honestly do their job by putting people in the right seats by what their tickets said probably just threw down their flashlights and stormed off.

It all worked out.