Jul 17, 2025 By Brad Hundt 3 min read

It’s July and the height of summertime, but Old Crow Medicine Show is already looking toward the yuletide season.

The long-running, Grammy-winning group that specializes in energetic Americana and old-time music has a Christmas album that it will unleash later this year. And, according to guitarist Mike Harris, he and his bandmates didn’t have to work too hard to get in the holiday spirit when they recorded it.

“We actually, for once, recorded a holiday album during the holiday season,” Harris said on the phone last week. Many a Christmas disc has been assembled in the spring and summer when musicians are in T-shirts and flip flops, but Old Crow Medicine Show did the bulk of the work on its holiday offering late last year, and “we set a Christmas tree up in the studio, and it was nice not to have to fake the spirit so much.”

Before the holidays, though, the six-member ensemble is taking to the road. They’ll be out through the end of August, with one show scheduled at the Grand Ole Opry in their homebase of Nashville, Tenn. On Friday, Old Crow Medicine Show will be bringing its “Circle the Wagons” tour to the Timber Rock Amphitheater in Farmington.

Even though its music harkens back to the folk, blues and hillbilly music that could be found in Appalachia and parts of the South in the 1920s and 1930s, Old Crow Medicine Show first emerged as the 21st century was dawning. The band first broke through in 2004 with the release of “O.C.M.S.” It arrived three years after the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and its accompanying soundtrack revived interest in old-time music. Old Crow Medicine Show has recorded seven albums since, winning a Best Folk Album Grammy for its 2014 album “Remedy.”

Over the last two decades, Old Crow Medicine Show has had several lineup changes, with the 37-year-old Harris coming onboard in 2021. His interest in old-time music was sparked by his father, “a mandolinist, a hobbyist musician,” who took him around to bluegrass festivals in North Carolina. Harris had his own band for a while, and played with country singers Brett Cobb and Chris Stapleton.

“I came to (Old Crow Medicine Show) primarily as a guitarist, but it’s been a wonderful opportunity to grow as a musician,” he explained. “It’s just been awesome.”

During a fallow period in his career, Harris took a job behind the scenes in concert promotion. While he was “very lucky to have that job,” he prefers to be on stage and not behind the scenes.

“There are a lot of people who are really interested in the business side, and that’s fine,” he said. “They make the big bucks.”

Showtime is 7 p.m. For information go online to timberrockamp.com.