The show: A few more than 500 people took over the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre on Saturday night for a pair of Nashville-based bands, headliners Old Crow Medicine Show and openers Chuck Mead & His Grassy Knoll Boys. The crowd made enough noise, and had enough fun, for 1,000. Which raises the question: Why have promoters waited so long to book Old Crow Medicine Show in the 210 area code?

Old Crow, a slick-picking, sharp-singing, string-driven sextet with the energy and collective personality of a room full of rock bands, didnt waste any time hitting their stride with Carry Me Back to Virginia, the title track of the latest CD, and Alabama High-Test. The band was fronted by almost everyone in the crew at one time or another in the 90-minute, 25-song set. But fiddler, harmonica player, singer, etc. Ketch Secor did most of the master of ceremonies heavy lifting, making plenty of San Antonio references (vatos, fruit cups and H-E-B), making sure everyone in the house knew guitarist, banjo picker, singer and accordionist Critter Fuqua is from San Antonio, and making sure there were no dull moments.

While a breakneck fusion of mountain music, bluegrass and jug band offerings is Old Crows stock-in-trade, the band sings beautifully and spiced the Empire set with ballads, murder and otherwise, including Take 'em Away, My Good Gal and Aint It Enough.

But, for Old Crow and their fans, theres no substitute for the uptempo tunes such as Humdinger, Raise a Ruckus, Mississippi Saturday Night and Tear It Down. When Old Crow Medicine show launched into Wagon Wheel, penned with Bob Dylan, the ovation and singing along were enough to shake the Empires chairs.

Value added: For Old Crows encore, they brought Mead and the Grassy Knoll Boys onstage for Country Gal then upped the ante with a special guest, San Antonio rock n roll pioneer and conjunto ace Jesse Chucho Perales. Both Secor and Fuqua took bajo sexto lessons from Perales, and Fuqua played gigs with Perales on Main Plaza. The mass band played a swinging Cherokee Boogie and a first-class rendition of Don Santiago Jimenezs Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio. Perales has had some serious health problems. Before he left the Empire stage, Perales took the microphone and, with well-honed show business timing, announced he was cancer-free. During the final number, Bob Dylans Quinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn), everyone sang along with a little more gusto.

For openers: Guitarist, singer and songwriter Chuck Mead, co-founder of the country outfit BR549, and His Grassy Knoll Boys, one of the best trios going, opened with a tight, 40-minute, 14-song set that twanged with abandon. Mead and company worked the room perfectly, opening with One Long Saturday Night and hitting on all country cylinders through The Devil In Me, the BR549 hit Me and Opie (Down By the Duck Pond) and classic covers from the bands latest CD, Back at the Quonset Hut, including Settin the Woods on Fire, Girl on the Billboard and Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor. Nashville came to the Empire and made an impression.

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Overnight review: Old Crow Medicine Show