Nashville Blues on youTube

You gotta love Marty Stuart for keeping the faith. Check out the clip of Chuck Mead and Chris Scruggs on Marty's tv show. They sing the Delmore Brothers' Nashville Blues and they sound so authentic. The guitar playing is great with a couple of lovely solos, and there's a bit of acoustic playing immediately before Scrugg's solo that sounded sublime to these ears.

They might not have the CMT image of Brooks and Dunn or be as shaggable as Faith Hill but give me Mead and Scruggs anyday. No wait a minute, can I just have a couple of minutes with Faith Hill, and then listen to them?

Occasional Bootleg Series No.9 – Chuck Mead in Charlotte

Chuck Mead and the Grassy Knoll Boys
July 12, 2009, Neighborhood Theatre
Charlotte, NC

Introduction, Out On The Natchez Trail, No Train To Memphis, Change The Way I Look, Sittin' And Thinkin', After The Last Witness Is Gone, Gun Metal Gray, She Got The Ring (I Got The Finger), Hot Rod, Sweet Sweet Girl, Big Big Love, I Wish It Was Friday

This bootleg is a soundboard recording from Chuck Mead’s 2009 summer tour where he was plugging his latest release Journeyman’s Wager. With him due to tour UK later this week the timing of this boot couldn’t be better. The opener is from Wager and it’s a great way to open the show. The others from the album all hit the spot, with the closer, I Wish It Was Friday sounding just like BR549 at their best.

The tracklist shows Sittin' And Thinkin' as being an Elvis Costello song. You gotta be shitting me! Chalrie Rich and half of Memphis had written, sung and mastered the song before Costello started wearing kiddies glasses. Chuck’s version here is a bit pedestrian and not the high spot of the show. The best of the oldies covers is Don Gibson’s Sweet Sweet Girl which I first heard courtesy of Warren Smith.

With his band called the Grassy Knoll Boys, I thought he’d have covered Jerry Lee’s Lincoln Limousine! A pretty good album that is worth digging out and would get me excited about the upcoming shows if I was going.

Check out the clip below for a great clip of Chuck and the GKBoys doing Cadillac In Model A.

Chuck Mead (BR549)

Born: Charles Lynn Mead, 22 December 1960, Nevada, Missouri

Anyone familiar with the retro-hillbilly band BR5-49 will know Chuck Mead as the Robert Redford look-a-like who plays lead guitar, shares lead vocal responsibilities and is pretty much the smooth talking front man of the band. He claims that he and Gary Bennett formed a partnership after they met in a bar and had a contest to see who could sing the most Johnny Horton songs - not a bad reason to form a band.

Bennett was singing in Nashville's bar/boot store Robert's Western Wear when he was joined by Mead, who'd also been playing on Lower Broadway, with the Homestead Grays. They formed BR5-49 in 1993, adding Smilin' Jay McDowell on slap-bass, Shaw "Hawshaw" Wilson on drums and Don Herron on fiddle/steel/kitchen sink/penny whistle/comb/pin-that-drops/clogs/two fingers/harmonica/coconut shells (useful for Tennessee Stud) and dobro. They built up a reputation as the city's best/only real country band, playing covers of Hank/Cash/Horton/Moon(who?)/Faron Young etc. They made their money from a tip jar. Their name came from a sketch on Hee Haw. By '95 they were becoming a tourist attraction and late comers had to settle for a view of the band from outside on the street. The place was so packed that even a few Music City Row executives turned up. Surely they were too country! Regardless, they were signed to Arista on October 13, 1995, and immediately recorded a mini-CD, recorded live at Robert's. Made up of originals and covers, it shows the band were raw, but obviously they wanted it this way. They'd insisted when they signed to Arista that they would only record for a major label if they could retain their hillbilly sound - they didn't want to sell out (just yet!).

They toured with the Mavericks and Junior Brown and in late '96 they recorded their first full length album. The album was a critically acclaimed success, with another high quality mix of originals (Even If It's Wrong) and covers (Cherokee Boogie). Country (ha) radio was typically sceptical of playing anything with a hoe-down feel, but the record still managed to enter the top 40. Other highlights of the album included One Long Saturday Night and Lifetime to Prove.
The next album came in 1998, Big Backyard Beat Show, which followed the same format as the others. Another goodie, it featured tracks that were a staple of their live show, like 18 Wheels And A Crow Bar and My Name Is Mudd. With Bennett and Mead still sharing the lead vocal role, their close harmonies had also improved. I know it's Chuck's birthday, but I can't go on without mentioning the musicianship of Herron, whose all-around work is great, but particularly his steel guitar playing.

In '99 they toured the US with the Brian Setzer Orchestra during which they recorded a full live album, Coast To Coast. When Arista's country division went the way of the dodo, the band were on the street. They were picked up by Lucky Dog (Sony) who proceeded to try to make them sound like 90% of country radio. The album This Is BR549 was a real let down. The band now looked like the Beatles, they had a heavy radio-friendly drum beat and the songs seemed far removed from Little Ramona and Sweet Sweet Girl. For some reason they even removed the hyphen from their name. As with the others, the record failed to sell (despite the drop of the hyphen).

After a long quiet spell the writing seemed to be on the wall and it came as no surprise when a split was announced. Bennett and McDowell left and were replaced by singer/guitarist Chris Scruggs and bassist Geoff Firebaugh. They band produced a mini CD but it's distribution was poor, in fact it was shit - only being for sale at gigs. Now the easy going blond guy with the big smile, the good looks and the tasty guitar licks is going solo and later this week I'll review his new album, Journeyman's Wager.