How 'bout a big plate of honky-tonk at Palace?
| Wednesday, Nov 23 2011 09:23 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Nov 23 2011 09:26 PM
Singer/guitarist Chuck Mead, who's become something of a honky-tonk hero on his many stops at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace over the years, hasn't nailed down what he'll be playing when he sits in with the Buckaroos Friday and Saturday, but he can guarantee a few things: Several of his favorite Buck songs will be on the set list, and he'll be ordering a steak -- the Don Rich Special, to be exact -- before the show.
Oh, and people will get off their bottoms and move their feet. Because they always do when Mead is in the house.
"They're not afraid to dance in Bakersfield," the performer said over the phone from his Nashville home Monday.
And Mead would know. He's played Bakersfield many times over the past 15-odd years, including a stop in 2009 to promote his first solo album, "Journeyman's Wager," a great collection of barn-burners minted in the tradition of country music's honky-tonk and rockabilly glory days. Just give a listen to "Out on the Natchez Trail" and "She Got the Ring (I Got the Finger)."
But it was as frontman for retro hillbilly act BR549 that Mead really lit a fire under Bakersfield audiences. The raucous shows the band regularly played at the Crystal Palace starting in the mid-1990s still live in the memory of local fans, myself included. I've seen dozens of memorable concerts at the Palace, but none as exhilarating as those shows. The raw energy that came off that stage when the boys blazed through favorites like "Cherokee Boogie" and "Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts)" got every boot scootin' and toe tappin.' And the semi-local-connection the band mentioned at every show never failed to stoke the crowd's enthusiasm: Overall-clad multi-instrumentalist Donny Herron kicked around Bakersfield for years, elevating the quality of the music scene with his prodigious gifts as a player.
"I think that was another reason it felt extra good in Bakersfield because Donny had that connection there, had lived there for a little while," Mead said. "He was kind of coming home in a sense. One of the only times I ever saw him drink a beer, it was after a show and we went to the Alley Cat. He was there with some old friends. It was always great rolling into town because of that."
But Herron and the rest of BR549 (the lineup has changed here and there over the years) won't be around for this weekend's shows. The band is on indefinite hiatus, Herron having long ago scored a steady gig in Bob Dylan's backing band, while the other members pursue musical interests of their own.
"It was so good," Mead said of his years in BR549, a band born in Nashville's rough-and-tumble Lower Broadway district in the 1990s, when a group of like-minded traditionalists joined forces on a whim.
"It seemed like the whole thing was made up and manufactured, but it was too good to be made up. We'd gone through this weird experience, all five of us. There's a certain bond that goes with that. So maybe that was what was being conveyed on stage, us loving what we were doing."
But if BR549 ever got the notion to reunite, Mead, 51, would have to squeeze it into a rather full schedule. He's recorded an album of country standards he plans to release next year and continues to offer input as musical director of "Million Dollar Quartet," a stage production that recounts the now-legendary 1956 evening at Sun Records in Memphis when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis got together for a jam session to end all jam sessions.
"It really is the coolest thing ever," said Mead of the show, now playing on Broadway and in Chicago and London.
"I'm familiar with the music like I'm familiar with the back of my head. They didn't want it to be 'Broadway musical rockabilly.' They wanted it to be real rockabilly, and that's why I got the call."
A touring version of the musical is expected to land in Los Angeles at some point, and Mead, knowing of Bakersfield's predilection for dancing in the aisles, said he'd put in a word for a stop here.
In the meantime, local fans can bide their time with a rollicking show from Mead himself. He noted that the two-night stand represents the first opportunity he's had to play with Owens' famous backing band, and he's been going over some song ideas with Buckaroo bandleader Jim Shaw. With little to no rehearsal time, he expects things will be pretty loose and spontaneous, though he's sure the shows will offer a mix of country classics and maybe a tune or two from BR549.
One thing he'll miss on his visit is the presence of Owens himself. Mead still remembers the day in March 2005 when he heard of the legend's death. He was in the middle of a home-improvement project, scraping paint off his kitchen walls, and recalls being knocked off his feet by the news.
"I felt like, 'well, there's another one.' There's not many left of our greats. Buck was a great man. He was always there, he always made time for us. And he didn't have to do that."
But being in the house that Buck built isn't a melancholy experience for Mead. The Palace holds nothing but affectionate memories of all the shows he's done there and remains one of the best rooms he's ever played. Besides, no other venue serves a top sirloin that Mead swears has magical properties: "When I eat the Don Rich dinner, I feel like I can play almost as good as him," he joked.
To make Friday's show, Mead will have just enough time to digest his Thanksgiving meal and give his wife a peck on the cheek before jumping on a plane and heading west, bringing with him only his guitar and musical collaborator Carco Clave, who plays pedal steel and electric mandolin.
"I think we'll play our gig and watch the guys who play after us for a while, go back to the hotel, watch TV and go to sleep.
"Unless we can get into some trouble at Trout's."
