You knew a band as seasoned as BR549 would recover from another lineup change without missing a beat, and sure enough, Dog Days, produced by John Keane, picks up where 2004′s Tangled In The Pines left off despite the departure of guitarist Chris Scruggs and bassist Geoff Firebaugh (who themselves were replacements).
Principal songwriters Chuck Mead and Don Herron, with Shaw Wilson still on drums, add bassist Mark Miller to the mix. If anything is missing, it’s Scruggs’ hard-driving urgency (think “Ain’t Got Time” from Tangled), but the songs are no worse off.
The familiar BR549 time warp is intact. The new disc starts off with something akin to old-time bluegrass gospel, “Poison”, highlighted by Herron’s banjo rolls and Mead’s plaintive vocals. “I’m Going Down” and the closer “Let Jesus Make You Breakfast” keep with the antique gospel theme. “Lower Broad St. Blues”, a co-write by Mead and Guy Clark, is right out of the 1930s; “You Are The Queen” sounds as if it were lifted from the Hot Club Of France’s songbook. No less than the Jordanaires harmonize behind Mead on “The Devil And Me”.
Two superb covers round out the collection: Tim Carroll’s ominously prophetic “After The Hurricane”, easy to sing with after one listen, and Dave Edmunds’ “A-1 On The Jukebox”, in which the cocky, confused singer can’t understand why he’s “nowhere on the chart.” It’d be ironic if it weren’t so ironic.
