"And I think the biggest contributor to any maker of music is what they've seen and heard. "Having spent most of my childhood rambling around the South," Secor said. More: John Mellencamp excites, engages opening night of Pittsburgh performances It's a matter of writing about what he knows best. Secor's Southern-tinged songs often delve into the open road and small-town joys. "I look back at times as a parent and think, 'Shoot, I hope my kids don't duplicate this.' How many times do you put your hand on an electric fence before you're like, 'Alright, enough of that'? I kind of never learned, and I like to write songs about that feeling that capture the rebelliousness. ![]() The trouble was more fun than not, and getting close to the edge was kind of the ultimate feeling," he said. Maybe it was the '80s, but we just always wanted to get in trouble. "It's been 30 years since I started walking down the wrong side of the tracks and maybe nowadays kids are a little more obedient. I don't know if middle-class white kids like me still have the same behavior. I remember when I was 14 smoking weed for the first time thinking 'well, I'm a little late to the party.' Most of my friends were doing it when they were younger than me. I started smoking and chewing tobacco when I was not even a teenager. I did stuff I would hope my children would never, ever do. I was the kind of person who would steal out of old ladies' gardens and shoot bottle rockets at cars. "That first happened when I was probably 7 or 8, when I first played Ding Dong Ditch. "I've been writing about run-ins with the law ever since I first started running from them," Secor said. The song's cinematic lyrics like "65 southbound/Cruising with a half pound/Blue lights spinning round/Better put the hammer down" make "Alabama High-Test" a crowd favorite. There's often a point in that song where Secor, on fiddle, springs to the front of the stage and starts jamming along with Morgan Jahnig (upright bass), Cory Younts (mandolin, keyboards, drums), Dante Pope (drums, mandolin) Mike Harris (slide guitar, guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro), PJ George (banjo/accordion) and Mason Via (guitar, gitjo.) ![]() Indeed, and when Williams sings his hit "Family Tradition," crowds go wild.ĭitto when Old Crow Medicine Show revs up its "Alabama High-Test," a song about an intoxicated drug dealer hoping to outrun the law. You know, the Williams' call it 'A Family Tradition." We've gotten to know Hank Jr.'s daughter, Holly, really well, especially through the Ken Burns project (PBS' "Country Music"), and we got to sing with her out on the road with her dad last week. We think he's probably the greatest country music songwriter of all time. "We love it because we're big fans of Hank Sr's music. "We just love the Hank Williams family legacy," Secor said.
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