One Long Saturday Night (DVD), Bear Family, Music & Performance

You wouldn't think it would be so hard selling authentic, down-and-dirty, revved-up country music in Nashville - the home of country music - but BR5 49 started off playing for tips in the bars of Lower Broadway while the music industry ignored them just a few blocks away. The industry was forced to take notice, but by then legions of fans were flocking Lower Broad to catch the scene This DVD recorded in Germany in 1996 catches BR5 49 at the peak of their game. It's a tribute to the strength of their original compositions that they can mix up their own songs, like Bettie Bettie and Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts), with classics like Gone, Gone, Gone or Cherokee Boogie, and you never notice that there's a forty-year gap between them. The new songs sound like classics and the classic songs sound new! As the band's Smilin' Jay McDowell says in his liner notes, 'We were doing the music we wanted to do the way we wanted to do it. We weren't trying to fit into any mold. We had no expectations of any record labels being interested in us. We just showed up every night and did our thing and worked on getting better. '

• ONE LONG SATURDAY NIGHT
• Music & Performance
• Bear Family