An Account of the Making of Tennessee Pusher

Like all good and proper tales of Nashville music, this one begins at The Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa. Old Crow Medicine Show was there with Cowboy Jack Clement to cut two songs from Jack’s legendary catalogue. Don Was had come to town to produce a track for Jack and to meet the members of OCMS; he was considering spearheading our next album. We all gathered at The Cowboy Arms, and once the work was done, we spent the afternoon spellbound listening to firsthand accounts of the making of rock n’ roll history. Jack told us about the day Elvis first walked into Sun Studios, and about the time he hit record as Jerry Lee Lewis laid into “Whole Lotta Shakin.” At that moment, I looked at Don and thought about the future…I too could feel something shakin’ way down deep. Just then, Gil Landry turned to me and whispered, “Man, what a great record this one’s gonna be.”

Early in the 2008, we accepted an offer to play a couple of weekends at the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. The Opry afforded us the chance to try some new material, and the streetscape of downtown Nashville offered considerable inspiration. Many of the characters who played a role in the songs of Tennessee Pusher showed themselves to us then. Down and outers, hustlers and freighthoppers, all typical of the street life on Lower Broad. Soon, Don returned to Nashville and spent two days in the shed behind my house, listening intently while we roughly played through the list of songs that would make up Tennessee Pusher. He kept pretty quiet through the whole affair, but a glimmer in his eye showed he knew we were on to something most special and rare.

Later at the Charlie Chaplin Studio in Los Angeles, in a tiny office above the film vault, we picked up again, playing the tunes and making them right, using that hammer-into-place song anvil that David Rawlings and Gillian Welch sent us off with years before. One Monday afternoon, mid-February, we moved into the back room at the famed A&M Studios, now called Henson Sound Studios. That’s where we met Jim Keltner. In a way, we knew him already, having read his name in the liner notes of countless albums, among them Bob Dylan’s Saved and Shot Of Love. A deeply spiritual man, Jim brought out in all of us a reverence for the mystical act of music-making and the art of the good record. Our audio engineer, Krish Sharma, brought his meticulous ears and a similar vibe of deep respect for the task at hand. Benmont Tench rounded out the group with organ blasts like rock n’ roll angels, worthy of a wedding or funeral. Everyone at Henson, from copy makers to coffeepot fillers, came to know us and lingered long beside the door to listen; they too knew that this was one for the ages, sharing the same sentiment: “What a great record this one’s gonna be.”

Crank up the Crows. Turn on the Tennessee. Put on the Pusher.

Old Crow Medicine Show – “Tennessee Pusher” on CD

—Ketch Secor

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