Look up wheel in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Three wheels on an antique tricycle

A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle. The wheel is one of the main components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be moved easily facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Wheels are also used for other purposes, such as a ship's wheel, steering wheel and flywheel.

Common examples are found in transport applications. A wheel greatly reduces friction by facilitating motion by rolling together with the use of axles. In order for wheels to rotate, a moment needs to be applied to the wheel about its axis, either by way of gravity, or by the application of another external force or torque.

Etymology[link]

The English word wheel comes from the Old English word hweol, hweogol, from Proto-Germanic *hwehwlan, *hwegwlan, from Proto-Indo-European *k^wek^wlo-,^[1] an extended form of the root *k^wel- "to revolve, move around". Cognates within Indo-European include Greek κύκλος kýklos, "wheel", Sanskrit chakra, Old Church Slavonic kolo, all meaning "circle" or "wheel",^[2]

The Latin word rota is from the Proto-Indo-European *rotā-, the extended o-grade form of the root *ret- meaning "to roll, revolve".^[3]

History[link]

A depiction of an onager-drawn cart on the Sumerian "battle standard of Ur" (circa 2500 BC)

A figurine featuring the New World's independently invented wheel

Evidence of wheeled vehicles appears from the mid-4th millennium BC, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe, so that the question of which culture originally invented the wheeled vehicle remains unresolved and under debate.

The earliest well-dated depiction of a wheeled vehicle (here a wagon—four wheels, two axles), is on the Bronocice pot, a ca. 3500–3350 BC clay pot excavated in a Funnelbeaker culture settlement in southern Poland.^[4]

The wheeled vehicle spread from the area of its first occurrence (Mesopotamia, Caucasus, Balkans, Central Europe) across Eurasia, reaching the Indus Valley by the 3rd millennium BC. During the 2nd millennium BC, the spoke-wheeled chariot spread at an increased pace, reaching both China and Scandinavia by 1200 BC. In China, the wheel was certainly present with the adoption of the chariot in ca. 1200 BC,^[5] although Barbieri-Low^[6] argues for earlier Chinese wheeled vehicles, circa 2000 BC.

Although they did not develop the wheel proper, the Olmec and certain other western hemisphere cultures seem to have approached it, as wheel-like worked stones have been found on objects identified as children's toys dating to about 1500 BC.^[7] It is thought that the primary obstacle to large-scale development of the wheel in the Western hemisphere was the absence of domesticated large animals which could be used to pull wheeled carriages. The closest relative of cattle present in Americas in pre-Columbian times, the American Bison, is difficult to domesticate and was never domesticated by Native Americans; several horse species existed until about 12,000 years ago, but ultimately went extinct.^[8] The only large animal that was domesticated in the Western hemisphere, the llama, did not spread far beyond the Andes by the time of the arrival of Columbus.

Early antiquity Nubians used wheels for spinning pottery and as water wheels.^[9][10] It is thought that Nubian waterwheels may have been ox-driven^[11] It is also known that Nubians used horse-driven chariots imported from Egypt.^[12]

The invention of the wheel thus falls in the late Neolithic, and may be seen in conjunction with other technological advances that gave rise to the early Bronze Age. Note that this implies the passage of several wheel-less millennia even after the invention of agriculture and of pottery:

• 9500–6500 BC: Aceramic Neolithic
• 6500–4500 BC: Ceramic Neolithic (Halafian)
• ca. 4500 BC: invention of the potter's wheel, beginning of the Chalcolithic (Ubaid period)
• 4500–3300 BC: Chalcolithic, earliest wheeled vehicles, domestication of the horse
• 3300–2200 BC: Early Bronze Age
• 2200–1550 BC: Middle Bronze Age, invention of the spoked wheel and the chariot

Wide usage of the wheel was probably delayed because smooth roads were needed for wheels to be effective. Carrying goods on the back would have been the preferred method of transportation over surfaces that contained many obstacles. The lack of developed roads prevented wide adoption of the wheel for transportation until well into the 20th century in less developed areas.

Early wheels were simple wooden disks with a hole for the axle. Because of the structure of wood, a horizontal slice of a tree trunk is not suitable, as it does not have the structural strength to support weight without collapsing; rounded pieces of longitudinal boards are required. The oldest known example of a wooden wheel and its axle were found in 2003 in the Ljubljana Marshes some 20 km south of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. According to the radiocarbon dating, it is between 5,100 and 5,350 years old.^[13] It has a diameter of 72 centimetres (28 in) and has been made of ash wood, whereas its axle has been made of oak.^[14]

The spoked wheel was invented more recently, and allowed the construction of lighter and swifter vehicles. In the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley and Northwestern India, we find toy-cart wheels made of clay with spokes painted or in relief,^[15] and the symbol of the spoked wheel in the script of the seals,^[16] already in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. The earliest known examples of wooden spoked wheels are in the context of the Andronovo culture, dating to ca 2000 BC. Soon after this, horse cultures of the Caucasus region used horse-drawn spoked-wheel war chariots for the greater part of three centuries. They moved deep into the Greek peninsula where they joined with the existing Mediterranean peoples to give rise, eventually, to classical Greece after the breaking of Minoan dominance and consolidations led by pre-classical Sparta and Athens. Celtic chariots introduced an iron rim around the wheel in the 1st millennium BC. The spoked wheel was in continued use without major modification until the 1870s, when wire wheels and pneumatic tires were invented.^[17]

The invention of the wheel has also been important for technology in general, important applications including the water wheel, the cogwheel (see also antikythera mechanism), the spinning wheel, and the astrolabe or torquetum. More modern descendants of the wheel include the propeller, the jet engine, the flywheel (gyroscope) and the turbine.

Timeline[link]

• 

  Bronze Age disk wheel as depicted on the Standard of Ur (ca. 2500 BC)

• 

  Classical Greek four-spoked chariot-wheel (as a Linear B glyph), in use from the 15th century BC. Hittite and Egyptian chariots tended to have six spokes, Iron Age Assyrian ones eight.

• 

  Bronze Age "wheel pendants" of the Urnfield culture (ca. 1200 BC), found in Zürich (Swiss National Museum)

• 

  An Early Iron Age spoked wheel from Choqa Zanbil (ca. 1000 BC, National Museum of Iran)

• 

  Wheel of the Etruscan chariot (ca. 530 BC)

• 

  The classic spoked wheel with hub and iron rim, in use from about 500 BC (Iron Age Europe) until the 20th century AD

• 

  Penny-farthing bicycle (1882)

• 

  Modern motorcycle alloy wheel with inflatable tire and disc brake

• 

  Michelin's "Tweel" airless tyre (2005)

Mechanics and function[link]

The wheel is a device that enables efficient movement of an object across a surface where there is a force pressing the object to the surface. Common examples are a cart pulled by a horse, and the rollers on an aircraft flap mechanism.

Wheels are used in conjunction with axles, either the wheel turns on the axle, or the axle turns in the object body. The mechanics are the same in either case.

The low resistance to motion (compared to dragging) is explained as follows (refer to friction):

• the normal force at the sliding interface is the same.
• the sliding distance is reduced for a given distance of travel.
• the coefficient of friction at the interface is usually lower.

Bearings are used to help reduce friction at the interface. In the simplest and oldest case the bearing is just a round hole through which the axle passes (a "plain bearing").

Example:

• If a 100 kg object is dragged for 10 m along a surface with the coefficient of friction μ = 0.5, the normal force is 981 N and the work done (required energy) is (work=force x distance) 981 × 0.5 × 10 = 4905 joules.
• Now give the object 4 wheels. The normal force between the 4 wheels and axles is the same (in total) 981 N. Assume, for wood, μ = 0.25, and say the wheel diameter is 1000 mm and axle diameter is 50 mm. So while the object still moves 10 m the sliding frictional surfaces only slide over each other a distance of 0.5 m. The work done is 981 × 0.25 × 0.5 = 123 joules; the friction is reduced to 1/40 of that of dragging.

Additional energy is lost from the wheel-to-road interface. This is termed rolling resistance which is predominantly a deformation loss.

A wheel can also offer advantages in traversing irregular surfaces if the wheel radius is sufficiently large compared to the irregularities.

The wheel alone is not a machine, but when attached to an axle in conjunction with bearing, it forms the wheel and axle, one of the simple machines. A driven wheel is an example of a wheel and axle. Note that wheels pre-date driven wheels by about 6000 years.

Stability[link]

For unarticulated wheels, climbing obstacles will cause the body of the vehicle to rotate. If the rotation angle is too high, the vehicle will become statically unstable and tip over. At high speeds, a vehicle can become dynamically unstable, able to be tipped over by an obstacle smaller than its static stability limit. Without articulation, this can be an impossible position from which to recover.

For front-to-back stability, the maximum height of an obstacle which an unarticulated wheeled vehicle can climb is a function of the wheelbase and the horizontal and vertical position of the center of mass (CM).

The critical angle is the angle at which the center of mass of the vehicle begins to pass outside of the contact points of the wheels. Past the critical angle, the reaction forces at the wheels can no longer counteract the moment created by the vehicle's weight, and the vehicle will tip over. At the critical angle, the vehicle is marginally stable. The critical angle Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \theta_{crit}

can be found by solving the equation:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \theta_{crit} = \tan^{-1} \left ( \frac {x_{cm}} {y_{cm}} \right )

where

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): x_{cm}

is the horizontal distance (on level terrain) of the center of mass from the lower axle; and

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): y_{cm}

is the vertical distance (on level terrain) of the center of mass from lower axle.

The maximum height Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): h

of an obstacle can thus be found by the equation:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ h = w \sin \theta_{crit} = w \tan^{-1} \left ( \frac {x_{cm}} {y_{cm}} \right )

where Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): w

is the wheelbase.

In the Unicode computer standard, the Dharmacakra is called the "Wheel of Dharma" and found in the eight-spoked form. It is represented as U+2638 (☸)

Construction[link]

Rim[link]

An aluminum alloy wheel

The rim is the "outer edge of a wheel, holding the tire."^[18] It makes up the outer circular design of the wheel on which the inside edge of the tire is mounted on vehicles such as automobiles.^[19] For example, on a bicycle wheel the rim is a large hoop attached to the outer ends of the spokes of the wheel that holds the tire and tube.

In the 1st millennium BC an iron rim was introduced around the wooden wheels of chariots.

Hub[link]

The hub is the center of the wheel, and typically houses a bearing, and is where the spokes meet.

A hubless wheel (also known as a rim-rider or centerless wheel) is a type of wheel with no center hub. More specifically, the hub is actually almost as big as the wheel itself. The axle is hollow, following the wheel at very close tolerances.

Spokes[link]

Rod[link]

A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel (the hub where the axle connects), connecting the hub with the round traction surface.

A spoked wheel on display at The National Museum of Iran, in Tehran. The wheel is dated to the late 2nd millennium BC and was excavated at Choqa Zanbil.

The remains of a pair of cartwheels with metal axle assembly.

An Ox-wagon in Aliwal North, South Africa. Note the three missing spokes and the metal tyre.

Metal spoke wheel from a bicycle.

The term originally referred to portions of a log which had been split lengthwise into four or six sections. The radial members of a wagon wheel were made by carving a spoke (from a log) into their finished shape. A spokeshave is a tool originally developed for this purpose. Eventually, the term spoke was more commonly applied to the finished product of the wheelwright's work, than to the materials he used.

Wire[link]

The rims of wire wheels (or "wire spoked wheels") are connected to their hubs by wire spokes. Although these wires are generally stiffer than a typical wire rope, they function mechanically the same as tensioned flexible wires, keeping the rim true while supporting applied loads.

Wire wheels are used on most bicycles and still used on many motorcycles. They were invented by aeronautical engineer George Cayley and first used in bicycles by James Starley. A process of assembling wire wheels is described as wheelbuilding.

A 1957 MGA Automobile with wire wheels

Tire[link]

Stacked and standing car tires

A tire (in American English and Canadian English) or tyre (in some Commonwealth Nations such as UK, and Australia) is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground. The word itself may be derived from the word "tie," which refers to the outer steel ring part of a wooden cart wheel that ties the wood segments together (see Etymology below).

The fundamental materials of modern tires are synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric and wire, along with other compound chemicals. They consist of a tread and a body. The tread provides traction while the body ensures support. Before rubber was invented, the first versions of tires were simply bands of metal that fitted around wooden wheels to prevent wear and tear. Today, the vast majority of tires are pneumatic inflatable structures, comprising a doughnut-shaped body of cords and wires encased in rubber and generally filled with compressed air to form an inflatable cushion. Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, such as cars, bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, earthmovers, and aircraft.

Alternatives[link]

While wheels are very widely used for ground transport, there are alternatives, some of which are suitable for terrain where wheels are ineffective. Alternative methods for ground transport without wheels (wheel-less transport) include:

• Being raised by electromagnetic energy (maglev train and other vehicles)
• Dragging with runners (sled) or without (travois)
• Being raised by air pressure (hovercraft)
• Riding an animal such as a horse
• Human powered:
  • Walking on one's own legs
  • Being carried (litter/sedan chair or stretcher)
• A walking machine
• Caterpillar tracks (although it is still operated by wheels)
• Pedrail wheels, using aspects of both wheel and caterpillar track
• Spheres, as used by Dyson vacuum cleaners and hamster balls

In semiotics[link]

The flag of India

The Romani flag

The flag of Mahl Kshatriyas

The wheel has also become a strong cultural and spiritual metaphor for a cycle or regular repetition (see chakra, reincarnation, Yin and Yang among others). As such and because of the difficult terrain, wheeled vehicles were forbidden in old Tibet.

The winged wheel is a symbol of progress, seen in many contexts including the coat of arms of Panama and the logo of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

The introduction of spoked (chariot) wheels in the Middle Bronze Age appear to have carried somewhat of a prestige. The sun cross appears to have a significance in Bronze Age religion, replacing the earlier concept of a Solar barge with the more "modern" and technologically advanced solar chariot.

The wheel is also the prominent figure on the flag of India. The wheel in this case represents law (dharma). It also appears in the flag of the Romani people, hinting to their nomadic history and their Indian origins.

Gallery[link]

See also[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wheels

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Automobile wheels

External links[link]

• The Oldest Wooden Wheel. Virtual exhibition. City Museum of Ljubljana. Accessed 31 January 2012.

Old Crow Medicine Show
Performing at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, October 2004.
Background information
Origin	Ithaca, New York
Genres	Alternative country, Bluegrass
Years active	1998–present
Labels	Nettwerk ATO Records
Associated acts	Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Mumford & Sons, The Felice Brothers, Justin Townes Earle, The Hackensaw Boys
Website	Official Site
Members
Ketch Secor Critter Fuqua Kevin Hayes Morgan Jahnig Gill Landry Cory Younts
Past members
Ben Gould Matt Kinman Willie Watson

Old Crow Medicine Show is a folk band based in Nashville, Tennessee. Their music has been called bluegrass, Americana, and alt-country. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs. They have been recording since 1998.

History[link]

Early[link]

Ketch Secor and Critter Fuqua first met in the seventh grade in Harrisonburg, Virginia in Rockingham County, and began playing music together. They performed open mics at the Little Grill diner which was "really the first chance that . . Critter had to play on stage." Being "a bit younger" than the "college students at James Madison University who typically hung out there" Secor "was considered a townie." As Secor says today: "They knew that we had talent, but it was raw. I mean, I was up there beating on a jaw harp when I was 13."^[1]

It was at Little Grill Ketch first saw his "contemporary" Robert St. Ours—who later went on to found The Hackensaw Boys--singing and "he was so cool with his leather jacket and side burns. I knew that's what I wanted to do." His early influences also included " . . driving up to Mt. Jackson, VA to the bluegrass Saturday night in the summer. And going up to Davis and Elkins College to participate in the Old Time Music week there, and meeting guys like Richie Stearns."^[1] Secor formed the Route 11 Boys with St. Ours and his brothers and performed often at Little Grill.

Meanwhile, Willie Watson first met Ben Gould in high school in Watkins Glen, New York in Schuyler County, and began playing music together. Both Watson and Gould dropped out of school and formed the band "The Funnest Game". They played a unique brand of electric/old time music heavily influenced by the lively old time music scene prominent in Tompkins and Schuyler County, New York. Most notably, The Horse Flies and The Highwoods Stringband. "We were like Tommy Jarrell jamming with Crazy Horse".^[2] Performing locally from Watkins Glen to Ithaca, New York the young band earned the respect of their local "old-time heroes" and gained a dedicated local fan base by performing weekly at the Rongovian Embassy with Richie Stearns and annually at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, New York

Upstate New York[link]

After Secor finished his schooling at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, where he learned to play the banjo, he spent a year taking short musician-hobo jaunts up to Maine and Canada from his home in Harrisonburg. "I had just read the book, Bound for Glory, and I knew that I wanted to go hobo with music. So we went out on the road . ."^[1]

After the breakup of the Route 11 Boys, Secor attended Ithaca College^[4] and brought Fuqua up to New York State, where they met Willie Watson through mutual friend Richie Stearns. Watson dissolved the Funnest Game and they assembled "a whole bunch of these players all around Ithaca, New York,^[5] They gathered in Critter's bedroom to record an album that they could sell on the road; a cassette of ten songs, called Trans:mission. In October 1998 the band left Ithaca for the "Trans:mission" Tour. Busking their way west across Canada and circling back east again where they settled in the Appalachian Mountains outside of Boone, North Carolina.

Busking break[link]

One day, while the band was busking outside a pharmacy called Boone Drug in Boone, North Carolina, the daughter of folk-country legend Doc Watson happened by and was impressed by what she heard. Doc Watson invited the band to participate in his annual MerleFest music festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.^[6] That break led to the act's relocation to Nashville in 2000,^[4] where they were "embraced and mentored" by Marty Stuart, the president of the Grand Ole Opry, Gillian Welch and Welch's longtime songwriting partner and guitarist, David Rawlings.^[6] Stuart helped them land some high profile gigs and Rawlings later produced their first two albums "O.C.M.S" and Big Iron World (2006).^[6]

They made their Grand Ole Opry debut on the Ryman Auditorium stage in 2001 to a standing ovation.^[7]

A country song[link]

Ketch Secor is married to writer Lydia Peelle,^[8] winner of the O. Henry Award and Whiting Award for her short stories.^[9] They met freshman year at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, later moving to Ithaca, New York together—where she attended Cornell and he Ithaca College. It was her breaking up with him in 1998 that led to the creation of Old Crow.

She later had a change of heart, but "honestly thought (she)'d never see him again." Shortly after graduating from Cornell, she read in the newspaper about an old widower who visited his wife's grave daily. "Something about that true love and devotion hit" her and she "thought of Ketch." Getting his address from his parents, she boarded a train the next morning, landing in Butler, Tennessee at 2 a.m. "Secor and his band were living in a tiny cabin in the woods" in this "freckle of a town near the North Carolina border." Once she knocked on the front door and Secor opened it "it was like (they) had never left each other."^[8]

"She was young, but she was always in love with him. It just took her time to realize that."^[8]

—Deborah Schoeneman, college friend

Peelle is named for her great-great-aunt Lydia Maria Child, the novelist, journalist, teacher, and abolitionist who authored the poem "Over the River and through the Woods"^[10] (later sung as a Thanksgiving song).

Live performance[link]

Busking in Boone, North Carolina led to Doc Watson's daughter discovering the group and a personal invite from the country legend himself to appear at his annual MerleFest music festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina in April 2000.^[6][11] This break knocked the act into the popular spotlight,^[6] and they have continued to appear at the festival in years since (2004, 2008).^[12][13]

Since then the band has performed at such major music festivals as CMC (Country Music Channel) Rocks the Snowys in Thredbo, Australia (2009), Bonnaroo (2002, 2005, 2007, and 2011),^{[14][15][16][17]} Telluride Bluegrass Festival (2005 and 2011),^[18] Coachella, All Good Music Festival (2010),^[19] and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival (2003, 2004, and 2009).^[20][21][22] They performed at the 41st Annual New Orleans Jazz Festival in 2010,^[23] an event featuring Pearl Jam, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Lionel Richie, The Neville Brothers, Allman Brothers Band, and Anita Baker.^[24] Their 2007 live-performance itinerary included shows in Boone, NC, Seattle, Arcata, CA, Knoxville, TN, Nashville and Boulder, CO, as well as overseas in London and Amsterdam.^[2] The band has also toured the UK several times, including an appearance at the Cambridge Folk Festival and on the BBC show Later with Jools Holland.^[2]

They have headlined at the Grand Ole Opry,^[6] after earlier having performed at that institution's 75th-anniversary celebration^[25] and appeared in special New Year's Eve shows in 2009 (with special guest Chuck Mead)^[26] and 2010^[27] at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. They opened for the Dave Matthews Band in 2009 at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA; the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Pelham, AL; and the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, NY. In the summer of 2009, the band co-billed The Big Surprise Tour with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, The Felice Brothers, and Justin Townes Earle.^[28] They performed as part of the Prairie Home Companion Cinecast October 23, 2010 broadcast from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, MN and viewable in cinemas throughout the U.S. and Canada.

In April 2011 the group joined Mumford and Sons and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros on The Railroad Revival Tour, a tour inspired by the Festival Express tour across Canada in 1970 that included Buddy Guy, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and The Band.^[29] Traveling exclusively in vintage rail cars, the three bands performed in six "unique outdoor locations" over the course of a week starting in Oakland, California.^[30] They appear in the musical documentary Big Easy Express, directed by Emmett Malloy, being made of the trip which premiered March 2012 at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival (SXSW Film) in Austin, Texas^[31]--winning the Headliner Audience Award.^[32]

Hiatus[link]

Old Crow Medicine Show announced in August 2011 that the group would be on hiatus until further notice. Three scheduled shows for September 2011 were cancelled. The banner announcing the hiatus was removed from the official band website as of December 13, 2011. Secor and Chris 'Critter' Fuqua, an original member of the group who has not performed with them for some time, began playing tour dates January 2012, including a benefit show at Little Grill Collective^[33][34] where their performing careers began. Proceeds of this benefit performance went to Our Community Place, for whom Secor recorded his original Christmas song "Send No Angels" for the fundraising album Our Christmas Present in 2008.^[35]

Founder rejoins[link]

Founding member Fuqua rejoined the group in January 2012,^[36] after years of separation. Also an original member, Willie Watson,^[4] guitarist and lead vocalist for the group, has 'parted ways'. The official announcement at the group webpage reads as follows:

We are happy to announce that one of the original founding members, Critter Fuqua, is back in the band. Critter has written and recorded some of Old Crow’s classic songs, including “Take ‘em Away”, “James River Blues”, “Big Time In The Jungle”, and “New Virginia Creeper”. Old Crow Medicine Show have decided to part ways with Willie Watson. They wish him all the best in his future endeavors.^[36]

The band has recorded a new album for According to Our Records (or ATO Records), which will be released in 2012.^[36] ATO was founded by Dave Matthews and his business manager Coran Capshaw in 2000 as a division of RCA Records. Based in New York City, it distributes through RED Distribution, the Sony Music independent-distribution arm.

Wagon Wheel[link]

"Wagon Wheel" has become something of a signature song for the group, but its origins predate its formation. Says Ketch of its authorship:

"I heard a Dylan song that was unfinished back in high school and I finished it . . As a serious Bob Dylan fan, I was listening to anything he had put on tape, and this was an outtake of something he had mumbled out on one of those tapes. I sang it all around the country from about 17 to 26, before I ever even thought, 'oh I better look into this.'"^[1]

The Dylan outtake, generally titled "Rock Me Mama", came out of recording sessions for the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid movie soundtrack (1973) in Burbank, California.^[38] Secor later met Dylan’s son, Jakob, who said "it made sense that I was a teenager when I did that, because no one in their 30s would have the guts to try to write a Bob Dylan song."^[37]

When Secor sought copyright on the song to release on an album in 2003, he discovered Dylan credited the phrase “Rock me, mama” to bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, who likely got it from a Big Bill Broonzy recording. As Secor says: "In a way, it’s taken something like 85 years to get completed."^[37] Only the chorus (or refrain) comes from the Dylan outtake:

So rock me mama like a wagon wheel

Rock me mama anyway you feel

Hey mama rock me

Rock me mama like the wind and the rain

Rock me mama like a south-bound train

Hey mama rock me^[39]

Secor and Dylan signed a co-writing agreement on the song. It has been covered by an increasing number of acts since its release on O.C.M.S. in 2004. The group's version of the song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in November 2011.^[40] To celebrate they released a limited edition 7” vinyl record of the song with "'All Night Long' Live At The Station Inn" (2003) on the B-side.^[41]

Musical style[link]

The band plays a wide variety of music, seeming to pull influence from any of the many musical forms that would have been performed by musicians of the turn of the 19th to 20th century to the 1940s, including old time, bluegrass, country, and folk blues. Country Music Television notes the band's "tunes from jug bands and traveling shows, back porches and dance halls, southern Appalachian string music and Memphis blues."^[7]

After three years playing guitar, Kevin Hayes switched over to the guit-jo, making him perhaps "the only professional guit-jo player in America."^[5]

"Well, the guit-jo is a very percussive instrument, and it's got the kind of hollowness that the banjo has, that kind of plunk that the banjo has, but it doesn't have a twangy thing. It's not really high end. It's like an empty, hollow, bass-y sound. If you need to identify it on the record, once you hear it, once you identify it as the guit-jo, then you'll be able to determine where it is through the record. Because once you know what it sounds like, I mean, it only sounds like a guit-jo. You'll never have it confused with anything else."^[5]

—Ketch Secor

Awards, honors, distinctions[link]

• The group joins Vince Gill and the Carolina Chocolate Drops 'and other notable acts' on the main stage at Yellow Creek Park in Owensboro, Kentucky June 2012 for The International Bluegrass Museum’s 9th annual ROMP: Bluegrass Roots and Branches Festival, 'the largest annual fundraising event for the Bluegrass Museum.'^[42]

• They took part in the Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration Concert, "This Land Is Your Land", March 10, 2012 at the Brady Theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma, performing classic Woody Guthrie songs with Arlo Guthrie, John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne,^[43] Rosanne Cash, Del McCoury Band, The Flaming Lips, Hanson, Tim O'Brien, and Jimmy LaFave.^[44]

• The group helped celebrate the life of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival founder/benefactor Warren Hellman at a free tribute concert in San Francisco February 19, 2012, appearing with such acts as John Doe, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Steve Earle, The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Gillian Welch, Boz Scaggs, and Emmylou Harris.^[45]

• As a part of Black History Month, Ketch Secor gave a talk and musical demonstration entitled "Black Tennesseans and Old-Time Music" at the Nashville Public Library, Hadley Park Branch, February 4, 2012 during which he explored "the rich African-American musical traditions of (Tennessee) from the time of slavery up to the present."^[46]

• Their recording of "Wagon Wheel" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in November 2011.^[40]

• They performed at the first annual BamaJam Music and Arts Festival in Enterprise, Alabama in 2008.^[47]

• They joined Uncle Earl, Sunny Sweeney, Todd Snider, The Avett Brothers, Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, the Hacienda Brothers, Elizabeth Cook, Amy LaVere, and Ricky Skaggs with Bruce Hornsby as performers for the Americana Honors and Awards Show held November 1, 2007 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.^[48]

• The band was nominated for a 2007 Americana Music Award in the category of "Best Duo Or Group."^[48]

• Their music video of "I Hear Them All", a song from Big Iron World (2006), was nominated for two 2007 CMT (Country Music Television) Music Awards; making first-round finalist in the Best Group and Wide Open Country categories.^[49] Directed by Danny Clinch, the video was shot in the Mid-City area of New Orleans featuring local residents with inspirational stories regarding Hurricane Katrina.

• Their 2004 album O.C.M.S. was selected by CMT as one of the top-10 bluegrass albums of the year.^[50]

• The group appeared at the inaugural 2002 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival^[14] and have returned in 2005, 2007 and 2011.^[15][16][17] Rolling Stone magazine named Bonnaroo "Best Festival" in 2008.^[51]

Special appearances[link]

• Old Crow Medicine Show appear on "veteran roots/Americana band" Marley’s Ghost album Jubilee, released June 2012 on Sage Arts, celebrating their 25th anniversary. Recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium and produced by Cowboy Jack Clement, the album features other "full-on collaborations between the band and their friends" such as Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Marty Stuart, and Larry Campbell. The album cover a wide variety of classic American songwriters including Kris Kristofferson, Levon Helm, Bobby and Shirley Womack, and John Prine "alongside a half-dozen original compositions."^[52]

• Ketch Secor wrote, arranged, and performs "Send No Angels" with Lani Marsh on Our Christmas Present: 2008, a fundraising album for Our Community Place in Harrisonburg, Virginia where his music career began.

• Old Crow Medicine Show performed "Tell Mother I Will Meet Her" at the induction of Emmylou Harris and Ernest V. "Pop" Stoneman into the Country Music Hall of Fame April 27, 2008.^[53]

• They perform Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee” on Song of America (2007), a 3-CD set tracing the history of the U.S. through new versions of songs by major artists. Proceeds benefit the Center for American Music, National History Day, and Folk Alliance.^[36]

• They appeared on Austin City Limits after Lucinda Williams, aired December 2007 (taped September 2007).^[54]

• They make frequent guest appearances on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor.^[55]

• They appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 2003 and again in 2008.

• They performed on a float for the 2003 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.^[56]

• They performed on the soundtrack for the film Transamerica which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005.

Personnel[link]

• Critter Fuqua - Banjo, Resonator Guitar, Guitar, Vocals
• Kevin Hayes – guitjo, vocals
• Morgan Jahnig – bass
• Gill Landry – banjo, resonator guitar, guitar, vocals
• Ketch Secor – vocals, fiddle, harmonica, banjo, guitar
• Cory Younts - mandolin, vocals

Former members[link]

• Ben Gould – bass
• Matt Kinman – bones, mandolin, vocals
• Willie Watson – vocals, guitar, banjo, fiddle, harmonica

Recordings[link]

Studio albums[link]

• ^AOut of print.
• ^BO.C.M.S. was re-released under the title Old Crow Medicine Show as an import in 2006. (ASIN: B000GFLI64)
• ^CBig Iron World charted: (27) Country Albums, (1) Bluegrass Albums, (2) Heatseekers Albums, (11) Tastemaker Albums.^[57]
• ^DTennessee Pusher charted: (7) Country Albums, (1) Bluegrass Albums, (16) Digital Albums, (9) Tastemaker Albums.^[57]

EPs[link]

• Vegas (out of print) **Cassette only
• Troubles Up and Down the Road (2001) (out of print)
• The Webcor Sessions (2002) (out of print)
• NapsterLife 09/29/2004 (2004)
• Down Home Girl (2006) Nettwerk Records — ASIN: B000FORKT0
• World Cafe Live from iTunes (2006) Broadcast on NPR's World Cafe October 25, 2006
• Caroline (2008) Nettwerk Records - Three track single featuring previously unreleased song "Back To New Orleans"

Other[link]

• The group recorded "Angel From Montgomery" for Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, an album celebrating Prine's rich and influential catalog.^[41]
• Song of America (2007) Various Artists Split Rock Records/Thirty One Tigers — ASIN: B000T3GK8O
  • OCMS perform Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) (Disc 2/Track 15)
• Ketch Secor wrote, arranged, and performs Send No Angels with Lani Marsh on Our Christmas Present (2008) produced by Our Community Place

Broadcasts[link]

• World Café with David Dye November 4, 2008.
• NPR "Old Crow Medicine Show: Punk Americana" by David Dye World Cafe October 25, 2006.
• NPR "Old Crow Medicine Show Revives Traveling Tradition" by Melissa Block All Things Considered September 4, 2006.
• A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor February 12, 2005.
• A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor September 25, 2004.
• A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor (all shows and references).

Videographic documentation[link]

• Down Home Girl
• I Hear Them All
• Music Video- Tell It To Me (Windows Users: Right-Click and select Save As)
• Music Video- Wagon Wheel (Windows Users: Right-Click and select Save As)
• Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour Michael Jonathon's Old Time Radio Hour
• Austin City Limits recorded June 9, 2007, broadcast December 22, 2007.
• CMT OCMS videos.

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Old Crow Medicine Show

• Old-time country
• Old time fiddle
• Old time music

References[link]