Album Info

Journeyman's Wager

By Chuck Mead

Rock - 2009

Back in the early ‘90s, Chuck Mead and his band BR5-49 lit up Nashville’s Lower Broadway club scene with their... more

Tracklist

1

Out on the Natchez Trail

3:21 min
2

Gun Metal Gray

4:45 min
3

She Got the Ring

3:23 min
4

Albequerque

4:02 min
5

Up on Edge Hill

4:45 min
6

I Wish It Was Friday

3:19 min
7

A Long Time Ago

4:17 min
8

After the Last Witness Is Gone

2:53 min
9

In a Song

3:57 min
10

Old Brown Shoe

3:18 min
11

No Requests

3:49 min

About Journeyman's Wager

Back in the early ‘90s, Chuck Mead and his band BR5-49 lit up Nashville’s Lower Broadway club scene with their gleeful mix of traditional country and retro-rock. His 2009 solo debut Journeyman’s Wager is infused with homespun wit, scorching licks, and an unpretentious sort of integrity. Mead’s voice has the earnest heartland clarity of Buck Owens, while his encyclopedic knowledge of primal guitar riffs recalls Dave Edmunds in his heyday. As a songwriter, he favors humor over sentimentality, though tunes like the panoramic “Albequerque” and the nostalgic “A Long Time Ago” are tender in the right places. When he dives into rockers like “She Got the Ring,” “I Wish It Was Friday,” and “After the Last Witness Is Gone,” he captures the rollicking spirit of a barroom jam. From the folksy story-song “Up On Edge Hill” to a vigorous cover of George Harrison’s “Old Brown Shoe,” Mead tests his limits here. Journeyman’s Wager is a sharply-rendered, heartfelt work that deserves mainstream exposure.