Who is Chuck Mead, and why is he Back at the Quonset Hut, as his latest album declares? Founder of pivotal alt-country band BR549, Mead is simply one of the most talented hillbilly performers in Nashville; he has more than enough right to cut an album at the legendary Quonset Hut, the same studio that birthed essential sides by George Jones, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash and more. Gathering up a host of Nashville A-team survivors, Mead isn't interested in radically revising these truck-stop jukebox favorites, and he doesn't need too. His instincts are always pure country, his shows a party where the dancing never stops.
Irony: None, at least not in the way he croons and wails and keeps pace with a tight boom-chick-boom rhythm section.
