Track Listing

1. Tell Me Mama
2. Even If It's Wrong
3. Sweet, Sweet Girl
4. Pourin' Pain
5. Uneasy Rider
6. Better Than This
7. Waiting for the Axe
8. Brain Cloudy Blue
9. Big Mouth Blues
10. Six Days on the Road
11. Cracker Jack
12. You're a Humdinger [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153775 in Music
• Released on: 2000-04-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live

Amazon.com
It's taken them three albums to shake their excessive campiness, self-conscious oldies re-creations, and uneven originals, but most of this live collection reflects a more mature, confident, and distinctive BR5-49. Along with a beefier rhythm section behind Gary Bennett and Chuck Mead's vocals, Don Herron's inspired choice to use his non-pedal steel as sort of a supercharged, slashing slide guitar alters the texture of their sound for the better. The witty "Better Than This" and "Waitin' for the Axe" reflect vastly improved in-house material, and that improvement extends to oldies as well. Compare the bonus track, a watery studio re-creation of the Farmer Boys' "You're a Hum-dinger," with their muscular live renditions of Gram Parsons's "Big Mouth Blues," Don Gibson's "Sweet, Sweet Girl," and Dave Dudley's trucker anthem "Six Days on the Road." Misfires include an incongruous revival of Charlie Daniels's incredibly dated 1973 hippie vs. redneck novelty "Uneasy Rider" and Bob Wills's "Brain Cloudy Blues," a well-chosen song undermined by a stiff, clumsy arrangement. Nonetheless, the fact that they've at last found their voice bodes well for the future. --Rich Kienzle

Customer Reviews

Country's Best Live Band Grows Up
Always a great live show (and an inexhaustible human jukebox of country B-sides and classics when you shout out your requests!) BR5-49 have also ripened as songsmiths. Whether it's their own familiar "Even If It's Wrong" or the wonderful new "Waitin' For The Axe" and "Better Than This," these guys are everything real country is about: excellent writing, excellent playing, and a whole lotta heart and integrity.

Next Best Thing To Being There
BR5-49 has established themselves as the best live honky tonk band doing it these days, at least to anyone who has seen them perform live. If you can't make it to one of their shows, this CD is the next best thing, although you lose a lot of the witty banter that is part of the fun at a live performance. So, all you hillbillies, and wannabe hillbillies, get the album, buckle up, and go for a ride.

Even if it's wrong
When plugging into Nashville's country music formula, releasing your second live album as your 4th overall release could be called wrong. Most would call it "stupid" or "just plain dumb". BR5-49 simply doesn't care, and after listening to Coast to Coast, you know why. Just as their live shows typically do, they start easy and work up to frenzied fever pitch, so does Coast to Coast. This record showcases of some of their better originals and favorite covers.

The production is mediocre, the guitar sound is a little muddy, and the steel guitar/fiddle are not featured as they have been in the live shows I have seen, but the quality musicianship shines through here.

When you first listen to this album you will probably think "Wow, that's kinda fun, but I'm going to get tired of this pretty quickly." You will be wrong. BR5-49's herky-jerky flashback is a portrait of how country music should be.