Old Crow Medicine Show teams with Bob Dylan again

FILE - This Sept. 18, 2013 file photo shows Ketch Secor of The Old Crow Medicine Show performing during the Americana Music Honors and Awards Show in Nashville, Tenn. The band had their biggest hit of their career by adapting an unfinished Bob Dylan song into "Wagon Wheel," which became a staple in both Americana and country music. Ten years later, Dylan challenged them to finish another of his uncompleted songs for their new album, "Remedy." (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

By Associated Press July 3, 2014 2 min read

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – For years, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show has been thanking Bob Dylan from afar for “Wagon Wheel,” the multiplatinum hit based on an unfinished Dylan song. The Americana band made it a fan favorite through their live shows over the past decade, and then Darius Rucker turned a cover into a No. 1 country song.

The reclusive master songwriter finally responded – in a way Secor never expected.

The lead singer of Old Crow, whose new album “Remedy” came out Tuesday, likens his relationship with Dylan to a kid dropping letters in a bottle and tossing them in the ocean seeking a pen pal on another continent.

“The bottle washed ashore on the beach in Malibu and Bob scrawled something into the bottle and he tossed it back into the Pacific and it made its way to Music City,” Secor said.

That response was another scrap of a song and a question: Would Secor want to take a crack at it?