Alternative country/rockabilly pioneers from Nashville's Lower Broad scene

A companion to Bear Family's BR5-49 DVD (BVD 20140)
High-end audio CD version with four bonus songs!
Caught at their peak!
Liner notes by BR5-49 front-man, Chuck Mead!
Bonus Tracks: recorded live in Kumamoto, Japan on October 21, 1996
All previously unissued!

When the Opry moved to the suburbs in 1974, Nashville's Lower Broadway (commonly known as Lower Broad) began to succumb to the forces of urban decay. But then, in a July 1995 'Billboard' cover story, Chet Flippo wrote about a ''new scene'' that had ''developed on its own in Music City. '' Encouraged by the 1994 opening of the remodeled Ryman Auditorium, progressive, tradition-based country artists like BR549 moved into the honky-tonks of Lower Broad to create a vibrant scene that attracted kids as much as old timers, and eventually inspired the downtown renaissance that continues today.

The year following that 'Billboard' story, BR5 49 were in Germany and were filmed and taped at S?dwestfunk. Those recordings caught the group at its peak, but have never been released until now. A companion piece to the DVD, this CD also includes four bonus tracks recorded later that year in Kumamoto, Japan. It's a tribute to the strength of BR's original compositions that they can mix up their own songs, like Bettie Bettie and Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts), with classics like Gone, Gone, Gone or Cherokee Boogie, and you never notice that there's a forty-year gap between them. The new songs sound like classics and the classic songs sound new! BR5-49 frontman Chuck Mead, long a favorite in Europe, remembers the era in his liner notes.

Track Listing

• Civil Defense Spot
• 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)

Additional Details

Label: Bear Family Records

Genre: Country

Run Time: 48 mins

Release Date: 08/12/16

UPC: 5397102173479