Sunday, April 12, 2009

JUST LISTEN: JUNIOR BROWN


Junior Brown is one-of-a-kind; a country singer for people that don't like country music.

"Just about the time they label me as some old time honkytonk singer, I throw something new in there that surprises them. And then they'll appreciate the traditional styles of country music too. Do something to wow them without ruining the roots of country and they end up accepting the music that they would have been prejudiced against."

But that's not all that makes Junior Brown unique. He invented the "guit-steel", a combination of a 6-string guitar and a steel guitar. Junior claims the guit-steel came to him in a dream.

"I was playing both the steel and guitar, switching back and forth a lot while I sang, and it was kind of awkward. But then I had this dream where they just kind of melted together. When I woke up, I thought 'You know, that thing would work!' They made double-neck guitars and double-neck steels, so why not one of each?"

Junior put a call in to guitar maker Michael Steven, who made the dream a reality and the guit-steel, loving dubbed "Old Yeller", was born in 1985. Junior wanted a second guit-steel, this one in cherry red, affectionately naming it "Big Red".

Junior's playing on the guit-steel is something to behold, creating some of the wildest and most heartfelt music you'll ever hear. Award-winning, inventor and even hearlded as a genius by Musician magazine, Junior isn't hung up on lables. "It's music for everybody," he says.

Be sure to visit Junior Brown's website and click here to buy his music.


2 comments:

Darius Whiteplume said...

I dig Junior. Nice post.

Keith said...

Thanks, Darius. He's a lot of fun. Glad you liked the post.

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