White Lake Music Review publishes local live music news, reviews, and perspectives around Whitehall and Montague, Michigan. This submission is shared as part of our community coverage, and we encourage others to contribute..
Saturday December 13, 2025
As I drove along the shoreline to the Red Rooster, the snow was falling heavily, darting toward the headlights in a mesmerizing vortex of white. I caught myself drifting back in time to 1977. I was ten years old and Star Wars “A New Hope” was playing in downtown Montague. Anyone else remember The Park Theatre? It was where the post office is now. The Millennium Falcon was making the jump to hyperspace…
Ordinarily, I would have been content staying home on such a night, but the Medicine Men were about to rock the Rooster! I’d wanted to showcase them for some time. Plus, I’d only posted five reviews so far this year, and six felt like a much more respectable number. With Christmas week fast approaching, I was running out of time!
The Medicine Men are an acoustic duo featuring Justin Carr (vocals and percussion) and Ron Smolen (guitar and vocals). Both have strong local connections, graduating from Whitehall. Ron was in his first high school band with Scott Nesbit (The FAN Club) and Steve Arnouts (Distracted). Justin has been in several music projects including “Sock Monkey” with Rich and Jerry Martin (Distracted), and is currently a member of the local band “Unoriginal”
Their name was suggested by Tommy Foster, since Ron is a pharmacist. When they first formed, they fed heavily off the success of the MTV “Unplugged” series in the early 90’s. Since then, they’ve performed over a thousand shows. This is their thirty-fifth year together.
They began their three-hour show with Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” before rolling right into “Drive” by Incubus, and Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”, leaving no doubts concerning their ability to mix things up, jumping decades and genres effortlessly. During “Ring of Fire”, Justin nailed the deep lead vocals while Ron voiced the trumpet part (more on that later).
The high energy vocals, percussion, and guitar continued with Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me” (video) followed by Dave Matthews Band’s “Where Are You Going”. At various points they weaved in 90’s pop songs like “Meet Virginia” by Train and Matchbox 20’s “Push”. This juxtaposed nicely against 90’s alternative hits they covered like “Come as You Are” by Nirvana and Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So”.
For “Say It Ain’t So” the vocals were rough, with both performers pushing their voices off pitch multiple times. I note this not to disparage (as their other songs were spot on), but because I think that’s a wonderful thing. If you’re a singer in a rock-and-roll band and your voice never breaks or goes off pitch, it means you’re holding back, not taking risks. You’re playing it safe.
The Medicine Men don’t hold back. They don’t play it safe. They go all out, performing on a vocal cord straining, hand-bruising, string breaking edge, which makes for an amazing show! Check them out next time they’re in our area (North Grove Brewers on Saturday the 27th) to see for yourself!
Back to the voiced instrumental parts (mentioned above). Since there is only one guitar, needed to hold the rhythm, both band members tackle instrumentals (horn sections, guitar solos, keyboard parts) vocally. They do this incredibly well, but on one song, “Your Love” by The Outfield, for a few seconds it sounded like they were mimicking the lead guitar part by vocalizing “meow meow meow”. That’s not what they were singing, but that’s what I heard. I chalk that up to spending too many hours working from home with cats for office mates.
The show rolled on with Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page” (video), The Hollies “Long Cool Woman” (video) and an excellent version of Alice in Chain’s “Man in the Box” (video).
I could go on, but you really need to check out the Medicine Men for yourself! Catch their live show featuring two local guys giving it their all, sharing their love of music. You’ll thank me later.
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