You're listening to Song Exploder where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishikesh, your way.

My name is Ketch, C.Core, and I play the fiddle in old Crow medicine show.

I remember Operation Desert Shield all through the night.

Every one of our favorite shows had been preempted by night vision flashes of airstrikes on Baghdad.

And not 12 years old, I knew that I was captivated, but I also knew that I thought the war was wrong.

The very next day in school, there was a great big speech all about this new time we were living in.

And George Bush and his decision to put these airstrikes together.

And I remember not standing for whatever we sang, whether it was God Bless America or whatever it was.

And getting in a lot of trouble for it, getting pulled out of the room.

I had a really wonderful principle, and he was a sweetheart of a guy, but he told me then,

well, Ketch, the way I think about it, you love it, or you leave it.

So I really came up in a love it or leave it kind of town.

And that sentiment is something that I've been wrestling with as a songwriter ever since.

Old Crow medicine show is a six piece band from Tennessee, who've been around since 1998.

They were inducted into the Grand Ole Opera in 2013, and they won the Grammy for Best Folk Album in 2015 for the record Remedy.

In this episode, Ketch C. Quar tells the story of how they made one of the songs from that record.

It's called Dearly Departed Friend. I'm Rashique Sherway. You're listening to Song Exploder.

I'm just standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend.

I was always interested in the stories from Afghanistan.

The kind of music that I play has found appeal among a number of veterans, my age, and younger, and older too.

So I knew I wanted to write a song and write many songs from their perspective.

This is a story about somebody from a place much like a lot of the places that I've lived before.

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