CENTERBURG – Dean Meadows will be playing live in the beer garden until 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 26; and then he will be playing on stage from 4 to 5:45. Check him out!
The radio was always blaring at the Meadows’ home off that dirt road in southern West Virginia. Everything from Charlie Pride and John Denver to Motown and gospel influenced young Dean growing up. At age 10, he would play the drums in church — that good ole gospel music at revivals — and then go home and rock out to 80s rock bands. In high school, he overheard his grandfather in Connecticut playing an Alabama record — “Mountain Music” — and was so intrigued by the country lyrics he decided then and there that this was the music he wanted to play.
At 19, he traded his drums for a guitar and started writing songs. He spent the next few years gigging over a thousand shows at coffee houses, county fairs and honkytonks — testing out his original tunes in front of live audiences and living the dream of being a traveling singer/songwriter. Still, Dean needed to secure a “day job” and began working in the telecommunications field; which, by good fortune, landed him in Nashville, Tennessee. Performing nightly in Nashville’s famous “lower Broadway” clubs taught Dean how to connect with his audience with a high-energy show that featured many of his own impassioned compositions.
Dean just completed his debut CD, showcasing his unique writing and gravel-and-molasses voice. Often compared to Travis Tritt and Eric Church, he has run the gamut of emotions from introspective autobiographies to out-and-out screamin’ party tunes … always telling compelling stories and delivering rich background on every track. Dean still likes to get up a game of street basketball with some buddies like he used to back in high school, ride through the hills or sit on a creek bank somewhere. But these days you’re more likely to find him in a room with his guitar working on his next favorite song.
