Chuck Mead

CHUCK MEAD ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF JOURNEYMAN’S WAGER AND TOUR

NASHVILLE, TN – Chuck Mead will release Journeyman’s Wager on May 12, 2009. Mead is best known as the co-founder of the three-time Grammy nominated BR549. Often hailed as ‘The Hillbilly Renaissance Man’ for his subsequent successes as songwriter, performer, producer and musical theater director, now emerges with his first solo record.

Journeyman’s Wager was produced by Grammy award winning producer Ray Kennedy and combines country, pop, pub rock and honky tonk. “What sets Chuck apart from so many artists is that he’s a genuine hard-working, blue-collar performer. I hate the word ‘old-school’ but we didn’t want this album to sound like a lot of modern records where everything is over-tweaked and perfect.

We knew we had to make it intimate and real,” says Kennedy. Mead had an all-star band for the recordings that featured Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart), Audley Freed (The Black Crowes), Mark Miller (BR549), Mark Horn (The Derailers), Dave Roe (Johnny Cash), Mike Henderson (The SteelDrivers), Pat Sivers (The Everly Brothers) and Jen Gunderman (The Jayhawks).

Mead’s post-BR career soon became known as much for its continued integrity as for its eclecticism. He founded the touring collective The Hillbilly All-Stars featuring members of The Mavericks, co-produced acclaimed tribute albums to Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, guest-lectured on ‘The Sociology of Modern American Culture’ at Vanderbilt University, and became a staff writer at one of Nashville’s top song publishers. In 2007, he was named Musical Director of Million Dollar Quartet, the new hit stage musical based on the night in 1956 that Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley came together for an impromptu jam session. “It’s been incredibly liberating to do all these things I’ve never done before,” Chuck says. “But most of all, I wanted to call my own shots and make a record that mattered.” Mead will be sitting in with the Million Dollar Quartet band on his tour stop to Chicago on June 18th.

Mead will kick off a 25-date tour on the West coast on May 1st. The touring band will consist of Mark Miller (BR549), Martin Lynds (Marah), Carco Clave (Asleep at the Wheel, Tex Ritter). Additional dates will continue to be added through the summer.

No Depression: “Journeyman’s Wager is a sure bet”

By Buzz McClain

On his first solo outing after a decade and a half of pumping out resonant honky-tonk party music with BR549, Chuck Mead remains happily awash in life-affirming twang and strum. Journeyman’s Wager is full of sing-along melodies, down-to-earth lyrics and rapid-fire instrumental breaks, courtesy of Nashville ringers such as guitarist Kenny Vaughn and keyboardist Jen Gunderman. To read on click here

Review: “What took him so long?”

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. To read on click here

“I Wish It Was Friday”

scooter music video from Journeyman’s Wager

Up on Edgehill

Up on Edgehill
By Trent Summer & Chuck Mead

Well they fought the yelling rebels back
From the fort up on the hill
Fought them off with pick and axe
Brother what I’m telling you is real
They spilled a lot of blood up there
But in the end there we’re standing up on Edge hill

They settled in and settled down
Stuck together and made a town up on that hill
Hard work pays the working man
And the good times roll when he can pay the bills
And they built houses made of limestone
Up on Edge hill

Chorus
Up on edge hill
Up on edge hill
This life on earth won’t last
But your spirit will
Time rolls along
No it don’t stand still
You can see for miles and miles
Up on Edge hill

There were doctors and lawyers and journeymen that
Hung their shingles out on that hill
On Saturday night they’d all be at Cotton’s
Dancin’ drinkin’ and raisin’ hell
Then get up and go to church on Sunday morning
Up on Edge hill

Chorus

The govt. fought and closed the stores
To build the interstate though that hill
Then torn some houses down
And close off some streets
But that just made it easier to steal
But their still sitting there on there front porches
Looking out at what’s left of Edge hill

After The Last Witness Is Gone

By Chuck Mead & Jon Tiven

Chorus
After the last witness is gone
We’ll sort it all out later on
We won’t who was right or wrong
After the last witness is gone

Tell me son what would you think
If tomorrow we were all extinct
Some chimp would tag me as the missing link
When the last witness is gone

Today I talked to a hummingbird
He laid it out there like I’d never heard
He said “The war is just to thin out the herd
After the last witness is gone.”

Chorus
Would Mother Nature have a smile on her face
As She said goodbye to the Human Race
She’ll wipe away the slightest trace
We defiled her beautiful world

Maybe you think that I may have a point
About the next in line to run this joint
Which Alpha-dog will God anoint?
After the last witness is gone

Chorus