BR5-49 is hands down the very best country/rock-a-billy band on the touring circuit today - bar none! With Big Backyard Beat Show, (the group's second full-length album) BR5-49 fuses thier honky-tonk / rock-a-billy / swing sound with a fun, homespun attitude. Rarely can a group parley multiple diverse musical sounds into one cohesive and flowing album, yet BR5-49 does just that. From the Buck Owens penned "There Goes My Love" with its hardcore country sound to the polka flavored "Goodbye Maria" to "18 Wheels And A Crowbar," a song that holds the essence of Tennessee Ernie Fords' "18 Tons" with the beat of the B-52's "Love Shack."
   With fourteen cuts included on this venture, nine of the fourteen were written by either Chuck Mead or Gary Bennett, the groups acoustic and electric guitarists respectively. "We've played originals since the very first night we played Robert's (the Nashville nightspot and bootery behind the Ryman Auditorium where the group was birthed)," says Mead, adding that the cover graphic and album title convey the "homespun" nature of BR5-49. "That's what the Grand Ole Opry was about," Mead adds, "people who were dedicated to homespun music... sitting out on the porch or in any room making music." BR5-49 is not only a throwback to the past of country music but also a precurser to where country is hopefully headed and hopefully country radio will return to the fold with Big Backyard Beat Show leading their playlists.

- Charlton Wiggins