BR549 - Dog Days
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Free Music Notes for Dog Days
Free Music Review: I Love BR549
Hit: 3 Stars
I love this band. I really mean it. I LOVE this band. And Chuck really should just retire the name. This is not BR549. It's not bad. In fact, this album is great. But it's a Chuck Mead solo record, not a BR549. I hate geeks who split hairs but I'm still doing it. I would buy this if it had Chuck Mead's name on it. With Scruggs gone (the final gasp) there's no other name recognition and no one else to really share the credit with. Just get it over with. This is in no way, shape, or sound the band I fell in love with. Please. Can BR5-49 finally just call it quits?Free Music Review: good new direction for band
Hit: 5 Stars
The band has had a change in members, but the songwriting and music quality on the album is very good. I highly recommend it to BR fans.Free Music Review: one of my favorite cds
Hit: 5 Stars
you can count on this cd to put you in a great mood. it is fresh and clever and the musicians are great. I also love the artwork on the cd. I guess you should buy it right now!Free Music Review: It's a free country
Hit: 2 Stars
I am a BR5-49 aficionado from the early days at Robert's when the band played for tips and usually played requests until 2am with little or no breaks. Admittedly, I long for those days as much as I long for stirrups in Major League Baseball. So I'm nostalgic, "IT'S A FREE COUNTRY." It is also legal for a band to evolve and morph in any which way it feels. Yet, whenever I read a review in some fishwrap publication that states that a band has "matured," I can do nothing but cringe. Here's the flowchart: Band starts out - Band plays hard - Band gets cult following - Band gets reputation - Band strikes out on road - Band gets contract - Band gets a little more pub. - Band gets contract with bigger label - Band gets new management supplied by label - Band gets "coached" in next recording - Band changes faces along the way - Band changes label again - Band gets new direction from new label - Band fights for identity - Band produces new "mature" album - Band gets lost as cult finds new local acts beginning this process.
Gee, I sure hope this isn't how the end of BR5-49 comes about, but enough of the doom and gloom of impending implosion. This record is OK. Of course, I realize that any band can't just re-hash the same 'ol stuff on every album, but part of what got these guys so much early attention was the raw exhuberance they displayed both live and on the vinyl. One part of this was their ability to do cover songs usually better than the originals, and a simple taste of this is what I sorely miss in the last few recordings. This band live used to be a wild, jittery, moving organism on stage, and although they are still a solid live show (saw them on the last tour at Poor David's Pub in Dallas), something has settled down. Chuck is a great talent, but an early appeal of the band was the vocal volley of Chuck and Gary Bennett. Ok, I'll go cry me a river, but dammit, just go listen to the Big Backyard Beat Show one more time. Mature? I just don't want to grow up that bad.
Free Music Review: Just Buy It!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
With the possible exceptions of Dave Alvin from the Blasters and Gary Louris from the Jayhawks, Chuck Mead could be the most under-appreciated songsmith/artist of our generation. To try and classify this band as anything other than authentic American music that seemlessly blends Blues, Gospel, Hillbilly Rock, Classic Country (not the ultra-commercial "formula music" Nashvilles spews forth today) and Jazz would be a waste of time. The melodies are catchy, the lyrics are strong and often humorous, the vocal harmonies are expertly executed and the musicianship is way above average at every position.
It is difficult to say that this new CD is "better" than Tangled in the Pines (also quite excellent!!) but it is absolutely as good and seems to demonstrate a maturation of sorts, especially in the crafting of the songs. The bottom line is, just buy it and you will like it if you like real uncontrived music. You will be supporting an American musical treasure and hopefully help to avoid what happened to the Jayhawks. They put out 5 remarkable CD's including the last incredible CD, Rainy Day Music, which I think stunned even them when it did not sell, and now they are disbanded. That is a heartbreaker so let's not let it happen again!!!
As a final note it should be stated that the CD entiled "This Is BR549" is the only thing they have put out that is not worth buying. Their label evidently thought it would be a good idea to try and fit a square peg into a round hole and make these guys a contrived, modern, formula country act which would be like asking Lucinda Williams to be the next Faith Hill. Suffice to say it did not work even though the CD did have a few good songs in spite of it all!! I highly recommend everything else they have released, especially the studio releases. Why not buy them all?!?!?!