Country Music

One of the good things about recorded music is that you can go back and hear things that were recorded before you were born, or that you can discover music that you missed the first time around. I listen to a lot of music that's before my time. Everything from Bach or Beethoven, to Django Reinhardt, to Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens, to Charley Patton,  to Glenn Miller, to Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, or even The Beatles. Okay, I was 4 when the Beatles broke up, but that puts it in the "missed the first time around" category.
 If you were to ask me what types of music I listen to, Country wouldn't be the first thing out of my mouth, but there is a lot of country music I like. Most of it falls into two categories, "early country", and what I call "fringe country." Early country for me is Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family,  Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and the like. Fringe country would be people like Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, and the like. Not to mention people like Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. As you can probably guess, I'm not a fan of current country music, but there is a band that I've been listening to lately that I missed when they were in their recording heyday in the late 1990s- early 2000s. BR5-49. I remember reading about them when they first came out in the late 1990s, but at the time I was on a big ska and reggae kick, so a revivalist country band didn't hold much interest for me. Recently though,for some reason, I was reading an article about Bettie Page, and the article stated that there were a number of songs written about her, and that her favorite was by BR5-49. So of course I looked it up, and was instantly hooked.

Bettie Bettie

I then started to explore their back catalog and found out that I had missed a great band. They were as I stated earlier, a "revivalist" country band in that they favored a more traditional sound - honky-tonk with elements of western swing, as opposed to more modern, singer-songwriter, rock influenced country, which in the 1990s would have been ...Garth Brooks.

I must of heard some of their stuff, because when I heard Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts), I could have sworn I had heard the line "traded in her Doc's for kicker boots" before.

Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts)

Not only could they write catchy tunes, but they played classic country and western,covering songs by Bob Wills, Ray Price, Moon Mullican, Webb Pierce, Buck Owens, Billy Joe Shaver, and Gram Parsons. So let's hear some music.

Crazy Arms

Baby Are You Gettin Tired of Me

 

 

Even if it's Wrong

 



 

 

Cherokee Boogie

Me 'n' Opie (Down by the Duck Pond)

The band members changed over the years, and they appear to have gone their seperate ways. Chuck Mead and Gary Bennett have released solo albums, Don Herron is playing with Bob Dylan. In 2012, the original lineup played a few shows, so I'm hoping they do a tour or record some more music.

Websites
Chuck Mead
Gary Bennett
Chris Scruggs (Chris took over guitar and vocals after Gary left the band)
Wiki article on BR5-49
Article on History of BR5-49


Some Info on Bettie Page
Wiki Article
Official Site (run by whoever owns her rights)
Obit
Documentary