Ketch Secor plays fiddle, banjo and sings for the roots-country band Old Crow Medicine Show. He grew up mostly in Virginia but started coming to a family summer home on Vinalhaven as a child. He also spent time in Portland in the mid-1990s as a young adult, playing on street corners and in small clubs.  Since he and his band are playing the State Theatre on July 19, we asked him what he’d be doing with any free time while in Portland. 

Well, one of the sad things about life on the road when you have a tour bus and 12 of your best friends is that you’ve gotta make it to the next town by dawn. Basically everywhere you go you’ve got about 18 hours to do it up, and the pressure’s really on in a town like Portland. Here’s my day!

I’m going to start at Becky’s Diner with those stop-sign thick pancakes with the real maple syrup. Then I’m going to wobble on down Commercial Street to see the boats come in at the Casco Bay Lines. I’ll probably be ready for something to wet my whistle, so I’ll walk up to Eventide and slurp a good half dozen (oysters) with some of that pear cider they got on tap.

By then, I’ll probably be ready for lunch. On my way to Hot Suppa, I’ll be going to Strange Maine to see if there are any cassettes I can’t live without. I probably need to check in at the International Cryptozoology Museum and make sure that Bigfoot is indeed alive and well in the Aroostook County wilderness.

By then, it’ll be time to go have a stroll on the Western Prom and take in a Portland Sea Dogs game, stop by the Amtrak station and see what it costs to take a bus to Rockland and finish it all off with a pint of Shipyard Ale.