Chuck Mead had a hell of a run with the band BR549 in the 1990s. The AltCountry outfit, named after the phone number Junior Samples would give out as part of a regular skit on that great American TV show Hee Haw, was one of the premier Rockabilly-band-with-a-Punk-edge groups of the day. They were kind of like The Blasters, only less California and more Tennessee.
After the Grammy-nominated BR549 broke up, Mead began to write music, lectured at Vanderbilt University and became the music director of the hit Broadway show Million Dollar Quartet.
On his latest album, Back at the Quonset Hut, Mead rocks out many classic songs using a bunch of “A-list” session musicians from Nashville, Tenn., recorded in the infamous Quonset Hut Studios where artists such as Merle Haggard, George Jones, Johnny Cash and others laid down tracks.
A great way to catch up with Mead is to listen to his recent and fun interview on Folk musician and world traveler Otis Gibbs’ free podcast, Thanks For Giving A Damn (look it up on iTunes or elsewhere online). Mead’s episode features stories about “guitar-shaped swimming pools, his first baseball game, meeting Tom Waits in a Kansas grocery store, seeing Naked Lunch with William S. Burroughs and David Cronenberg, early East Nashville and vintage scooters.”
CHUCK MEAD AND THE GRASSY KNOLL BOYS play Wednesday, April 17 with Ben Knight and the Well Diggers at Southgate House Revival in Newport. Buy tickets, check out performance times and get venue details here.
