With his unique voice, more unique song writing, and even more unique double
necked “Guit-Steel” guitar, there has absolutely never been ANYONE like Junior
Brown. He’s the American Original. Born in 1952 in Cottonwood, Arizona, Junior
Brown showed an affinity for music at an early age when the family moved to a rural
area of Indiana near Kirksville.
In the following years, Junior began to experience
Country music and remembers it as “growing up out of the ground like the crops – it
was everywhere; coming out of cars, houses, gas stations and stores like the
soundtrack of a story, but Country music programs on TV hadn’t really come along
much yet; not until the late fifties.” Discovering a guitar in his grandparent’s attic,
he spent the next several years woodshedding with records and the radio. Junior
was also able to tap into music he couldn’t hear at home which older, college aged
kids were listening to. This was possible due to his father’s employment at small
campuses throughout the next decade as the family moved twice again. As a young
boy he was able to experience the thrill of performing before live audiences, at
parties, school functions even singing and playing guitar for five thousand Boy
Scouts at an Andrews Air Force Base jamboree; then while still a teenager, getting
the chance to sit in with Rock and Roll pioneer, Bo Diddley. Armed with this broad
spectrum of influences, he began to develop a storehouse of musical chops.
Early on, Junior realized he had to keep his interest in Country music a secret; “it
was like a secret friend I carried around, being careful not to tell anyone (especially
girls) about my love for it because I thought they would laugh at me.”
It wasn’t until the late 1960’s that Junior Brown would proudly explore the passion for the music
he had loved since his early childhood in Indiana. With many prominent figures as
his inspiration (Country legends, some who he would work with years later), he
spent his nights in small clubs across the southwest. “I played more nights in
honkytonks during the Seventies and Eighties than most musicians will see in a
lifetime… I did so many years of that, night after night, four sets a night, fifteen
minute breaks; I mean after that, you’ve gotta get good or you gotta get out. The
early 1970’s California Country dance club scene was particularly competitive, but I
learned professionalism and stage demeanor which has served me well to this day.”
More recently however, Junior has shown himself to be equally adept at a wide
variety of American music styles beyond Country. These include Rock and Roll,
Blues, Hawaiian, Bluegrass and Western Swing.
Seeing Junior live is a definite must, so GUIT WITH IT ’cause he’s THE AMERICAN ORIGINAL!
