Nashville's BR5-49 have never played by Music City rules. Thus their output doesn't resemble that of other country acts: Their albums aren't ten songs long, they don't hire the regular studio hounds, their hat-capped mugs don't grace their album's covers, and now, half of their recorded output consists of live albums.

But unlike their debut EP, Live From Roberts, on which the defiantly retro five-piece asked a public that didn't know them to give them a spin, the new Coast to Coast finds the band playing listener, offering twelve of the most requested songs that make up its live sets. "We get so many requests from fans for our records, but we wanna put our own stuff on our records," says Gary Bennett, one of BR5's two singer/songwriter/guitarists. "So this was aimed to be a fan-oriented record."

In addition to appeasing fans, the album gave the band another chance to record in the forum that seems best suited to it. While the self-titled 1996 and '98's Big Backyard Beat Show albums revealed the group to be comfy and able in the studio, BR5 are at their best when they're getting their ya-ya's out on stage. "I think we like both," Bennett says of the band's relationship to the stage and studio. "But I guess in the studio we don't quite get the energy that we get live."

BR5 on stage is a creature that accentuates the band's punkness as much as their respect of country history. They remain a Nashville anomaly: despite being country purists, they're much more likely to break into "I Wanna Be Sedated" than "Friends in Low Places." "A lot of times after our shows a seventeen-year-old girl will come by with her grandpa or grandma," says Bennett. "And you can't predict who brought who. Probably the most common phrase we hear is, 'I don't like country music, but I like you guys.' They haven't really been exposed to what you and I might call country music. They've heard this polished pop country. We say that we get both kind of blue hairs. You get the old ladies and you get the young people with the blue-dyed hair, and they think it's rock."

Yet Bennett is leery of the alt-country catchall. "I hate the term 'alternative country,'" he says. "I mean, I'm in the same pile as Steve Earle. I like Steve Earle, but I don't think we sound alike at all. Any little rockabilly trio in Missouri is called alternative-country. The only defining line is that if you don't get played on the radio, then you're alternative country. I don't wanna be part of that."

As for the band's future status in Nashville, Bennett remains cautiously optimistic. BR5 have a dedicated fan base, but they have yet to crack country radio. "We thought it was stuck in the mud four years ago, but Lord, Lord look at it now," he says of the band's home. "When we first came out, everybody was saying, 'Oh they're going to be saviors of country music' and all that bullshit. And we knew not to take that stuff seriously and how fleeting moments are and someday they'll be pointing the finger at us and say we failed. But I'm doing better than in any other job I've ever had. We've got work and our bus and things keep getting better."

ANDREW DANSBY
(April 27, 2000)