Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel

What this video is

Released in September 2006, this video accompanied the lead single from Old Crow Medicine Show's major-label debut O.C.M.S. (2004, Nettwerk), arriving at the crest of a roots music revival partly ignited by the 2000 Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The carnival setting — shot at a real traveling fairground in Smyrna, Tennessee — grounds the song's hitchhiking narrative in a tactile, lived-in Southern…

Why it matters

A landmark document of the mid-2000s string band Americana revival, this video helped establish Old Crow Medicine Show's visual identity as rooted in pre-WWII Southern folk and carnival culture. Its success without radio airplay made it an early case study in YouTube-driven organic music video…

The director

LA-based director and producer; communication graduate of Santa Clara University; co-founder with Jack Johnson of Brushfire Records; one half of The Malloys directing duo (with brother Brendan); career began with surf films in the late 1990s before…