Chuck Mead - 'Journeyman's Wager'

Journeyman's Wager Bottom Line:

Whether as front man for the sometimes retro and always awesome BR549 (or BR5-49) or standing on his own as a solo act, Chuck Mead never fails to give a 110% performance as a singer and lead guitarist. With Journeyman's Wager, he finally steps up to the mike as a solo artist, and there's no doubt he belongs there. As solid and uncompromising as any of his work with his Grammy-nominated group, Chuck Mead shows he's no novelty act.

About Chuck Mead

Chuck Mead was born in December of 1960, and it seems to me there were two ways those end- of-the-Boomer era kids grew up: steeped in what Nashville was then, with the rural ideals of "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Beverly Hillbillies," with Waylon & Willie, Buck & Roy, and "Hee Haw" guiding musical tastes or as cynical stoners who just missed the Summer of Love. (Sometimes both.)

When I listen to Mead, and read his blogs, I think he, like me, must have been one of the former. The first time I heard BR5-49 I was wowed to my shoes, even if the DJs were playing the old "Cherokee Boogie" as a joke (I've made my comments about what happened to the Owens Family's KNIX before, I won't go into it again). Anyway, that Mead has been able to stick to his guns this long, and still release music this uncompromisingly COUNTRY, makes me want to salute him. In the meantime, I'm listening. Again and again and again.

Certainly he's never won any ACM or CMA statuettes (it's Grammy that's noticed his gigantic talent, of course). Certainly the mainstream radio finds him far too country. As a solo artist, he's out to prove that he's not going to be boxed in by any too-tight genre. Obviously influenced by all those artists that we heard through the late 60s and 70s, there a touch of all roots music here, rising above "country" and "rock." Americana's true definition.

Journeyman's Wager - The Songs

Sometimes wistful, sometimes funny, sometimes even a little scary country music. Whether the nostalgia of "A Long Time Ago" or the humor of "She Got The Ring" or "After The Last Witness Is Gone," or the eerie other-world sounds of "Gun Metal Gray," Chuck Mead's songs dive down to the roots and draw up all those feelings, move the feet to dance "Out On the Natchez Trail," and definitely cheer the soul with "I Wish It Was Friday."

He even comes out here, to my side of the world, with the heartfelt "Albuquerque," the last of the big cities out here that's still a Western town. He sticks with his tried-and-true hillbilly sound for most of the songs, but he demonstrates the range of his influences with a surprise cover of the Beatles' "Old Brown Shoe," a little-known George Harrison track, that is staggeringly good (and I'm pretty fussy about my Beatles covers; only Aerosmith has been able to really please me thus far), a hard-charging take that is lacking only George's own guitar playing (and Chuck does a pretty good job of stepping into THOSE particular shoes, anyway).

The only thing left to say about this disc is "what took him so long?"

Release Date: May 12, 2009 - Label: Thirty Tigers

Journeyman's Wager Track List:

1. "Out On The Natchez Trail"
2. "Gun Metal Gray"
3. "She Got The Ring (I Got The Finger)"
4. "Albuquerque"
5. "Up On Edge Hill"
6. "I Wish It Was Friday"
7. "A Long Time Ago"
8. "After The Last Witness Is Gone"
9. "In A Song"
10. "Old Brown Shoe"
11. "No Requests"