Chuck Mead
Journeyman’s Wager
(Grassy Knoll)
US release date: 12 May 2009
By Juli Thanki
It’s been over three years since the honkytonk revivalist group BR549 released their last album, and with each band member engaged in various other projects, fans wondered if they’d ever hear from frontman Chuck Mead again. After spending a hiatus as the musical director for the stage show Million Dollar Quartet (based, of course, on the famous Sun Records impromptu jam between Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley), hillbilly heartthrob Mead is back with his first solo venture, Journeyman’s Wager. To read on click here
Americana Revolution Review #003: Chuck Mead
MusicFog interview with Chuck Mead
Chuck Mead Album Cover Chuck Mead has way too much fun marrying the story songs back to the emphatic and energetic music. And about dang time it is for this long awaited solo album from the BR549 frontman: Journeyman’s Wager. What you have here is a full spectrum of flavors. Finger licking good, I might add. Lots of wonderful layering of instruments, thanks to the deft production hand of Ray Kennedy, and stellar sidemen Kenny Vaughn, Audley Freed, Mark Miller, Mark Horn, Dave Roe, Mike Henderson, Pat Sivers and Jen Gunderman. And Chuck is in fine form, it will make you feel good! Pay special attention to:
Out On The Natchez Trail – pure spunk, oh yeah, it takes you there!
Gun Metal Gray – slow burning blues
I Wish It Was Friday – this one bounces and rolls so easy
After The Last Witness Is Gone – Southern roadhouse swagger
In A Song – stone country, major sweet, sing along
Old Brown Shoe – hypnotic drums and keys, with touches of 60’s sensibility, this kicks
–With love from Jessie Scott
“No Requests,” the funky final track on this solo debut, offers the most emphatic evidence as to where Chuck Mead’s head has been at since his main band, BR549, went on hiatus. Where that walking jukebox got its start playing just about any sawdust-and-steel classic its fans clamored for, this busman’s holiday is all about originality, something to which the 11 hungry tracks here amply attest. To read on click here
Former BR549 frontman Chuck Mead makes good on Journeyman’s Wager
By Edd Hurt
published: May 07, 2009
Journeyman’s Wager
By Chuck Mead (Grassy Knoll/Thirty Tigers)
Playing Friday, 29th at The 5 Spot and Saturday, 30th at The Basement
Chuck Mead makes a virtue out of relaxation on his new full-length Journeyman’s Wager, but the narratives have a knockabout air, and the former BR549 leader sounds like he’s learned to roll with a few punches. To read on click here
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
