BR5-49 CAUSING A STIR ON MUSIC ROW.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

A new grass-roots country music scene that developed under the noses of Nashville's Music Row establishment has advanced across the nation, onto radio and into the charts.

Leading the charge is BR5-49, a rootsy quintet whose no-frills ``hillbilly beatnik'' music was nurtured four nights a week for 18 months at a downtown Nashville boot store that doubled as a honky-tonk.

The popularity of the band and combo bar and boot shop, Robert's Western World, helped revitalize the once-seedy area of downtown Nashville known as Lower Broad. Today, honky-tonk culture in the area is thriving and BR5-49 is in the midst of a European tour.

The band's acclaimed, self-titled debut album for Arista/Nashville, containing memorable retro originals and classic covers of songs by Mel Tillis and Gram Parsons, has remained firm on the country chart for the past seven months.

BR5-49 - Chuck Mead (guitar, vocals), Gary Bennett (vocals, guitar), Don Herron (guitar, fiddle), Smilin' Jay McDowell (upright bass) and Hawk Shaw Wilson (drums) - took its name from the phone number of Junior Samples' used-car salesman routine on TV's ``Hee Haw.''

McDowell, calling from Paris, said his band has already surpassed the musicians' wildest expectations.

``To make the charts in country music, you've got to be played on all the country stations at the same time,'' he said from his hotel room after a visit to the Eiffel Tower. ``We've been played on the radio, but not everybody adds our song the same week. But it's a real thrill when you kick into a song that's been on the radio and people know it.

``In the beginning, we didn't even consider radio an option. We were just a live country band. We play country music, and what's generally played on country radio today isn't generally country music.''

McDowell moved to Nashville from Indiana in 1992. He was playing guitar for what he termed a ``death rockabilly'' outfit when he hooked up with BR5-49 founders Mead, Bennett and Wilson. Next came Herron, a West Virginia square-dance musician who plays a multitude of stringed instruments.

``I grew up as a big fan of country and rockabilly with this whole vision of Nashville,'' McDowell, 27, recalled. ``I really felt like something was drawing me to Tennessee, whether Memphis or Nashville. I visited both places, and Nashville just seemed like a lot more friendly place to live. I went down to the Lower Broadway area of town. It was scary then. At nightfall, things started to happen. There were lots of drunks, and you always had to watch yourself. But it was exciting to be young and at that place.''

Virtually every label in town romanced the band once the scene started hopping, and a host of music stars began popping into Robert's to hear the hard-working young group in Sunday-go-to-meetin' suits deliver hard-core country, bluegrass and rockabilly as if it were 1956 all over again.

After BR5-49's five-song debut EP, ``Live From Robert's,'' was issued last April, word began to spread outside Music City.

The band appears April 24 at the Roxy in West Hollywood.

``We're not doing anything new by any stretch,'' McDowell said. ``But we felt like we were getting away with something because we were doing it in Nashville, where people said, `You can't do this. You can't make a living doing this type of music.' Now, we're selling a lot more CDs than some of the acts that had some of the big hits. And we did it right under the nose of the industry.''

McDowell said he was surprised how fanatical European audiences have been. Some fans, particularly in Britain and France, know more about country's roots than many Americans.

``A lot more people know the real thing in Europe than they do in the States,'' the bass player said. ``They seem to know the history of country and view it as the best music in the world. We've sold out every show so far. They haven't been huge shows, but we've been turning people away.''

And if the whole thing dried up tomorrow? McDowell isn't worried.

``If the records and shows quit selling, the worst we could do would be to go back to Robert's four nights a week,'' McDowell said. ``It's still the best little place in the world. It's just a good old honky-tonk.''

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Photo

Photo: Don Herron, left, Chuck Mead, Smilin' Jay McDowell, Hawk Shaw Wilson and Gary Bennett are touring Europe with their brand of ``hillbilly beatnik'' music that mixes country, rockabilly and bluegrass.