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.
