Sad Songs for an Old Crow

Gill Landry of Nashville-based alt-country string group Old Crow Medicine Show

Gill Landry

Gill Landry of Nashville-based alt-country string group Old Crow Medicine Show says his solo work sounds nothing like his well-known band.

“It’s more personal,” Landry tells EW. “It’s more songwriting in the vein of a Townes Van Zandt vibe — not so country, two different things really.”

Landry is touring in support of his self-titled 2015 release, out now on ATO Records.

“I’ve always been doing both,” Landry says of the stylistic shift between Old Crow’s sound and his solo material. “I put out quite a few records since even before I was in the band.”

Landry says he enjoys performing all the songs off his latest release, but particularly album-track “Lost Love.”

“I always like to play the song ‘Lost Love’ because I can feel it,” Landry says. The tune, like much of the record, blends Roy Orbison’s melodrama with Springsteen’s sense of working-class melancholy.

“I should’ve known the heartbreak I would find,” Landry sings in a chesty baritone punctuated by mariachi horns, “with your lost love on my mind.”

Elsewhere, on “Lately Right Now,” Landry references the constant allure of the American open road when he sings: “Leaving town is easy to do.”

Some may not realize Landry got his start in music here in Eugene. “I lived in Eugene for a long time,” Landry recalls. “I got my start there. I love Eugene.”

Gill Landry and opener David Dondero play 8:30 pm Friday, Nov. 20, at Axe & Fiddle in Cottage Grove; $10. 21-plus.