BR5-49
BR5-49's first full-length disc isn't a bad album, but it offers nothing that hasn't been done earlier and better by nouveau honky-tonk and rockabilly bands in Boston, Austin, L.A., Washington, and Baltimore. Gary Bennett and Chuck Mead, BR5-49's two singing, songwriting guitarists, mix six originals with old songs by the likes of Webb Pierce, Mel Tillis, Ray Price, Moon Mullican, and Gram Parsons. BR5-49 performs with the enthusiasm and competence of the seasoned bar band it is, but neither Bennett nor Mead is a special singer or picker and the rhythm section lumbers along without distinction. One suspects that BR5-49 were signed because they showcased regularly on Lower Broadway in Nashville, where country-music executives who don't get out much thought they were seeing something unprecedented.--Geoffrey Himes