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Mead will always be a local hero for his part some 15 years ago in the resurrection of Lower Broadway’s honky-tonk scene—no question one of Nashville’s defining developments of the last two decades. For his first (!) solo album, Journeyman’s Wager, the BR549 co-founder comes up with next-century country that’s equally at home in Bakersfield, Music Row, or anyplace where longnecks leave sweaty rings on the bar. Produced by Ray Kennedy, a guy who could make a string quartet of periwigged dandies come out sounding like Oklahoma roughnecks, it butts full-bore horndog rockers like “I Wish It Was Friday” and the hilarious lament “She Got the Ring” (“…and I got the finger”) up against statements of resolve such as “In a Song,” socked across by an A-team roster that includes Kenny Vaughan, Mike Henderson, Audley Freed, Mark Horn, Dave Roe, Jen Gunderman and Pat Sivers. I don’t expect country stations to recognize how awesome the soaring steel and surging guitars of the anthemic “A Long Time Ago” would sound blasting from convertible speakers all summer—but that’s why God invented radio adapters for iPods.
Sat., May 30, 9 p.m., 2009
Sat., May 30, 9 p.m., 2009
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