- Junior Brown
Infobox musical artist
Name = Junior Brown
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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Jamieson Brown
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Born = birth date and age|1952|6|12Kirksville, Indiana , US
Died =
Instrument =Guitar , Vocals
Genre = Country,neotraditional country ,alternative country
Occupation =Musician ,Songwriter ,Actor
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Label = Curb,Telarc
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URL = [http://www.juniorbrown.com/ www.juniorbrown.com]
Notable_instruments = "Guit-steel"Jamieson "Junior" Brown (b.
June 12 1952 ,Kirksville, Indiana ) is an American countryguitarist and singer fromCottonwood, Arizona .Biography
He first learned to play
piano from his father "before I could talk". His music career began in the 1960s, and he worked through that decade and the next developing his astonishing guitar skills. By the mid-1980s he was teaching guitar at the Hank Thompson School of Country Music atRogers State University , inClaremore, Oklahoma .In 1985 Junior invented a double-necked guitar, with some assistance from Michael Stevens. Junior called the instrument his "guit-steel". When performing, Junior plays the guitar by standing behind it, while it rests on a small podium/
music stand . The top neck on the guit-steel is a traditional 6-string guitar, while the lower neck is a full-size lapsteel guitar for slide playing. Brown has two guit-steels for recording and live work.The original instrument, dubbed "Old Yeller", has as its standard 6-string guitar portion the neck and pickups from Brown's previous stage guitar, a Fender Bullet. The second guit-steel, named "Big Red", has a neck laser-copied from the Bullet neck, but in addition to electric guitar pickups, both the standard and lapsteel necks use an identical Sho-Bud lapsteel pickup. There is a pocket in the upper bout of the guitar to hold the slide bar when it is not in use. Brown quickly became a local success in
Austin, Texas as the house band at the Continental Club. His debut album was 1993's "12 Shades of Brown"; it was followed by "Guit with It". Later that year (1995), Brown released "Semi Crazy ", and followed it with 1997's "Long Walk Back".In 1996, Brown was featured on the
Beach Boys ' now out-of-print album "Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 " performing a cover of their 1962 hit "409". The song features Brown playing guitar and singing lead with the Beach Boys singing harmonies and backing vocals. Brown also won the CMA Country Music Video of the Year award in 1996 for his video, "My Wife Thinks You're Dead," which featured 6-foot-7-inch Gwendolyn Gillingham.Brown's music has been showcased on various TV shows and movie soundtracks, including "
Me, Myself and Irene ", "SpongeBob SquarePants " and the 2005 "Dukes of Hazzard" remake, in which he also played the narrator.Although Brown plays traditional country and Hawaiian steel styles, few of his performances will finish without some blues playing and surf instrumentals.
Beginning in August 2006 Brown joined
Bob Dylan 's third tour of American minor league baseball stadiums.In April of 2008, Brown shot three pilot episodes of a country music program modeled after programs from the early 60s, in which Brown will play with a house band as well as guests as host of the show. [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/issue/column?oid=oid%3A608447]
Discography
Albums
ingles
External links
* [http://www.juniorbrown.com/ Official Junior Brown web site]
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0cfexq85ldfe~T1 All Music Guide]
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