Ketch Secor

Jay Ketcham Miller Secor (born May 14, 1978), known as Ketch Secor, is a Grammy award-winning American musician and a co-founder and current frontman for the band Old Crow Medicine Show. He is the only member of the band who has remained since its inception. Secor is a multi-instrumentalist, playing fiddle, banjo, harmonica, guitar and other instruments, and is known for infusing old-time Americana and Appalachian music with more modern punk influences.

Early life

Born in Denville Township, New Jersey, to Trina and James Jay Secor III, Secor grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia, the son of an Episcopal school headmaster. Earlier generations of the Secor family had achieved success in banking and business in Toledo, Ohio, but lost much of their fortune in the stock market crash of 1929.

Secor's first musical instrument was a mouth harp purchased on a field trip when he was in the fourth grade. In the seventh grade, Secor met future bandmate Christopher "Critter" Fuqua. Secor and Fuqua began playing music together, performing open mics at the Little Grill diner in Harrisonburg, where they met Robert St. Ours, founder of The Hackensaw Boys. Secor and St. Ours joined to form the Route 11 Boys.

Secor attended New Hampshire's prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy, where he learned to play banjo and discovered the music of Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan.

Old Crow Medicine Show

While traveling and busking with Fuqua, Secor met Old Crow Medicine Show co-founder Willie Watson in upstate New York, and Kevin Hayes in Maine, where he worked raking blueberries. The newly formed group decided to call themselves "Old Crow Medicine Show" in honor of the traveling variety shows, or medicine shows, that roamed the American West in the 1800s. In 1998, the group recorded a 10-song album called ''Trans:mission'' and went on their first tour in October 1998, performing across Canada.

In 1999, Secor and bandmates moved to Boone, North Carolina, settling in a rural barn with no running water, where they worked on their music (and learned to make corn whiskey). In 2000, the group were busking outside Boone Drug downtown on King Street when the daughter of folk-country legend Doc Watson heard them playing, and brought her father back to hear them. Doc invited them to play in his annual MerleFest music festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The gig proved to be a big break for the band, resulting in an invitation to play at the Grand Ole Opry where they met and were mentored by Marty Stuart, and got the opportunity to open for Dolly Parton at the Ryman Auditorium.

"Wagon Wheel"

Secor is known for co-writing Old Crow Medicine Show's biggest hit and signature song, "Wagon Wheel", which started as a short snippet recorded by Bob Dylan in 1973 called "Rock Me, Mama" — extended by Secor to include new verses about feeling homesick for the south and hitchhiking his way home. Years later he and Dylan signed a co-writing agreement, agreeing to a 50–50 split in authorship. The final version of the song was released on their second album '' O.C.M.S.'' (2004), and was certified Gold in 2011 and Platinum in 2013 by the Recording Industry Association of America. The song has been covered many times, notably by Nathan Carter in 2012 and Darius Rucker in 2013, whose version hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Publisher

In May 2024 it was announced Secor had signed a "global publishing administration deal" with Sony Music Publishing Nashville. CEO Rusty Gaston said of the arrangement:

Writing

In 2018, Secor published ''Lorraine: The Girl Who Sang the Storm Away'' with illustrator Higgins Bond, a children's book inspired by Appalachian folktales about a young African-American girl and her grandfather who weather a severe storm with the help of music.

Film and television

Secor appeared on three episodes of the Ken Burns documentary miniseries ''Country Music'' (2019), as well as the live concert special ''Country Music: Live at the Ryman'' (2019).

Personal life

Secor moved to Ithaca, New York at 19 to attend Ithaca College while his girlfriend, Lydia Peelle, attended Cornell University. After multiple breakups, the couple married on November 3, 2001 in North Andover, Massachusetts. They have two children, a daughter and a son.

The couple founded the Episcopal School of Nashville in 2016, where Secor serves as Board Chair, Emeritus.

Secor frequently collaborates and writes music with American bluegrass guitarist Molly Tuttle who occasionally tours and appears with Old Crow Medicine Show. In early 2023, it was reported that Secor and Tuttle are in a romantic relationship.

Secor endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secor, Ketch
1978 births
Living people
American male musicians
People from Denville Township, New Jersey
People from Harrisonburg, Virginia
Musicians from Morris County, New Jersey
Musicians from Virginia
American multi-instrumentalists
Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
Ithaca College alumni
Bluegrass musicians from Virginia
Old-time musicians
Male banjoists
American banjoists
American harmonica players
Male violinists
20th-century American violinists
21st-century American violinists
American male songwriters
Casco Bay
American bandleaders
Old Crow Medicine Show members