Old Crow Medicine Show, Felice Brothers, Dave Rawlings Machine, Justin Townes Earle Prep Big Surprise Tour

No alarms and big surprises.

Folk fanatics are reveling in the announcement of the aptly named “Big Surprise Tour.” The limited-run August tour will showcase the collective talent of Old Crow Medicine Show, the Dave Rawlings Machine (featuring Rawling’s partner Gillian Welch), The Felice Brothers, and Justin Townes Earle.

The tour, named after a cut on the Felice Brothers’ latest album (Yonder Is the Clock), quite literally came to be overnight. Another “surprise” came a few days after the tour’s initial announcement. For a final show at Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, the gang (minus Earle) will be joined by Levon Helm, Iron and Wine, Grace Potter, and Justin Jones.

The epic concerts will be a chance for the group of artists, which Justin Townes Earle calls, “kindred spirits,” to publicly practice the art of collaborative songwriting they all know so well. Besides mostly sharing either management (Slipshod) or publicity (Big Hassle), the artists enjoy a common past. Old Crow’s Keith Secor recalls, “Seven Years ago when Old Crow first met Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch at the Station Inn in Nashville, we stayed up till dawn singing Stan Rogers songs and playing AC/DC licks.” After playing plenty of what James Felice considers “pretty bizarre gigs,” he and the rest of the crew are ready to put on some serious shows.

A handful of East coast and Southern cities will see the gang join forces for what a press release is calling “an old fashioned revue.” Composed of two 90-minute sets, each show should prove to be a wholly original musical experience. Audiences should not, however, expect an unfulfilling, three-hour jam session. While Secor urges fans to “expect the unexpected,” the artists’ common history and mutual respect should encourage a more coherent sort of hoedown (or is it a hootenanny?).

August 4- Hampton Beach, NH @ Casino Ballroom
August 5- Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
August 6- New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
August 7- Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
August 9- Charlottesville, VA @ Charlottesville Pavillion
August 10- Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre
August 12- Louisville, KY @ Waterfront Park
August 13- Nashville, TN @ Riverfront Park
August 14- Knoxville, TN @ World’s Fair Park
*August 16- Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavillion

*Excludes Justin Townes Earle; additional acts include Levon Helm, Iron and Wine, Grace Potter, and Justin Jones.