Chuck Mead: Journeyman’s Wager

BR549 frontman Chuck Mead’s first solo disc kicks mightily from beginning to end. There’s too much good stuff to describe at a run, so here’s a taste: “She Got the Ring (I Got the Finger)” is one of those so-right-it-must-have-been-done-before titles (it hasn't), with lyrics and a punchy horn-based tune to match. “Gunmetal Gray,” a cold-blooded tale, sounds like CCR might have if fascinated by the Tennessee River countryside instead of the bayou. And “No Requests” finds Mead getting in touch with a little Elton John piano funk, country-style. He also throws in a billy-rocking cover of “Old Brown Shoe,” one of George Harrison’s best, yodeling his way out of the song. (As it turns out, the opening lines are “I want a love that’s right, what’s right is only half of what’s wrong / I want a short-haired girl who sometimes wears it twice as long.” Who knew?)

Journeyman’s Wager rocks it a little more than a typical BR549 offering. The sound’s rich, too, with Mead’s voice riding several layers of accompaniment: core band, organ, pedal steel, backing vocals, piano, the stray accordion. That said, nothing strays too radically from the band’s sound -- and that’s a good thing, as the world’s a little low on BR549.

Mead’s on tour with his backing band (the Grassy Knoll Boys) through the end of June; you can find the dates on his My Space page. Help balance the cosmic scales of justice and patronize this man’s work.