BR-549 To Release New Album & DVD “One Long Saturday Night”
Neotraditional throwback country band BR549 may be no longer, but fans are going to get to hear (& see) some new music from the band that launched Chuck Mead and Gary Bennett, and helped put the Lower Broadway portion of downtown Nashville back on the map.
Arriving on American shores on November 20th, Germany’s Bear Family Records is releasing One Long Saturday Night—a 23-song CD and companion DVD capturing the original lineup of the band at the height of their powers as they perform classic country hits and a handful of originals live for the German TV show Ohne Filter. The original lineup (designated BR-549, with a dash at the time), included songwriters and singers Chuck Mead and Gary Bennett, multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron, drummer “Hawk” Shaw Wilson, and bassist Smilin’ Jay McDowell. The CD also includes four tracks from a concert in Japan the band played the week after.
BR-549 signed to Arista Nashville in 1995 after taking Lower Broadway by storm. The band played a now legendary residency at Robert’s Western World at a time when the area near the Ryman Auditorium was completely run down. The enthusiasm of bands like BR-549 helped revitalize the area to the hopping part of town it is today. “We saw it as our duty to bring the spirit of Robert’s Western World to every place we went,” explains Chuck Mead. “When I see and hear this DVD and CD set, it feels like we actually did that.”
Along with a slew of covers and songs with other renditions already heard on previously releases, One Long Saturday Night includes some new stuff never heard from the band, including a version of Hank Williams’ “Lone Gone Lonesome Blues,” Ray Price’s “Heartache by the Numbers,” Carl Perkins’ “Gone, Gone, Gone,” Carl Smith’s “Go Boy Go,” Hawkshaw Hawkins’s “Lonesome 7-7203” and two tunes Bob Wills made popular—“Right or Wrong” and “Take Me Back to Tulsa.” It also includes a previously-unreleased song from Chuck Mead called “Hometown Boogie.”
BR549 was one of the catalysts of the mid to late 90’s neotraditionalist moment, and also included notable members Chris Scruggs and Geoff Firebaugh over its 13 year run. The band released six albums and a few extended plays, and reunited briefly in 2012. Chuck Mead and Gary Bennett went on to launch solo careers, and continue to tour and release records today.
- Even If It’s Wrong
- Long Gone Lonesome Blues
- Heartaches By The Number
Bettie Bettie- Right Or Wrong
- Hometown Boogie
- Honky Tonk Song
- Go Boy Go
- Lonesome 7-7203
- My Name Is Mud
- I Ain’t Never
- Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts)
- Big Mouth Blues
- Cherokee Boogie
- Ole Slewfoot
- Crazy Arms
- Gone, Gone, Gone
- One Long Saturday Night
- Take Me Back To Tulsa
- Hillbilly Tramp (live in Kumamoto, Japan on October 21, 1996)
- Settin’ The Woods On Fire (live in Kumamoto, Japan on October 21, 1996)
- Knoxville Girl (live in Kumamoto, Japan on October 21, 1996)
- Sweet Georgia Brown (live in Kumamoto, Japan on October 21, 1996)
November 13, 2015 @ 9:33 am
So this is an official release and not one of the releases the band is doing on their Facebook page?
November 14, 2015 @ 10:55 am
That is correct.
November 13, 2015 @ 10:21 am
I saw them on a German TV show while I was stationed over there, in 1996. I was spending the week of Christmas with my great-aunt and uncle in Berlin, and BR549 came on and sang “Cherokee Boogie”. My relatives knew almost no English, but halfway through the song, my great-aunt pointed at the TV, then said, “I like this!”. The Germans love old country and rockabilly….probably more than a lot of Americans do.
I bought their debut CD at the BX, earlier that year, so I knew who they were. It was pretty cool getting to see them on TV, over there.
November 13, 2015 @ 1:38 pm
I saw them open for (name escapes me now) at the Ryman around the time of the Big Backyard Beat Show release. Rarely seen a band look so at home/the right fit for a stage.
November 13, 2015 @ 1:43 pm
Sure, I like old Tim Carroll, and BR5-49
But Nashville don’t need that noise, no,
Nashville’ll do just fine
As long as there’s a moron market
And a faggot in a hat to sign.
-Mr Robbie Fulks
November 13, 2015 @ 4:41 pm
Love BR549 still listen to their albums today.Saw them live a couple of times when they came over to Scotland Chuck Meade’s solo albums are excellent too.
November 14, 2015 @ 4:54 am
I was a fan early on, and bought their first cd, recorded live at Roberts. I always thought it was “hawk”
Shaw Wilson, not hank. No matter they were very cool!
November 14, 2015 @ 8:07 am
It is “Hawk” Shaw. I must have had Hank on the brain.
November 14, 2015 @ 6:16 pm
This is not the original BR-549. I used to play next door to them at the Wagon Burner before they got signed. The original group had an old hippy bass player named “Bones” that wore Hawaiian shirts and played a P-bass. They also had a little latin fellow that played sax and wore a cowboy hat. He worked at the car wash on West End. I can’t remember his name. They were much more interesting then and a lot less like the retro/novelty band they became when they hired on the other rock-a-billy/old country/vintage clothing store guys. That was a beautiful time on lower Broad. It was funky and the crowds were a mix of locals, Vandy kids, homeless, and tourists. That was before Music Row found out about the scene down there. I’ve always thought that it was odd that BR-549 had such a cool vibe and basically became a cartoon type act when they fired the original guys and made their band all the same retro type. I think that’s why they never really made it. They were a great party band that everyone loved to go get drunk and dance to but they didn’t have anything new of substance for an album that would be of interest. I have always thought it odd that they don’t recognize the original members of the band.
November 14, 2015 @ 8:12 pm
I have 4 of their cd’s and they were good and I do miss them making albums.
November 17, 2015 @ 5:15 pm
I worked at Roberts b4 BR5-49 (I believe that is the original name- to differentiate then from HeeHaw BR-549) and remember Gary working a single at Roberts – he followed Jeff Young- and Chuck was working a single or duo at Tootsies. Of course the rest is history. I really miss that time. New artists would come to town and get up to sing. Tootsie and then Robert would give them work to do and then feed them. Everything is so commercial now that the spirit of Lower Broad is gone.