Junior Brown Is Coming To Town

by Shelly Kneupper Tucker on September 16, 2009

There are two words I have for you this morning, my friends: Junior Brown. Now I could only tell you those words after I knew that my Sweet Spousal Unit had bought tickets to see him at the Granada Theater in Dallas on October 2nd. You don’t really think I’d let you get my seat do you?

There were once these Wolf Brand Chili commercials on television where a man with a rich baritone voice asks, “Neighbor, how long has it been since you had a big steamin’ bowl of Wolf Brand Chili? heh heh. Well, that’s too long.” Did y’all ever hear those? The voice of the man in the commercial sounds very much like Junior Brown’s singing voice.

I confess that, at least for me, Junior Brown was an acquired taste. I’m not fond of “country” music, unless it has a sense of humor. Junior Brown’s music does. His style seems to be a fusion of country, Western Swing, blues, and Rockabilly. He’s what my Daddy would call a “Honky Tonk singer.”

I found out about him through my husband, who is totally enamored of the “guit-steel” guitar ( a marriage of the steel guitar and an electric guitar) that Junior Brown created. He wanted to be able to switch from one instrument to the other with ease. If you watch the following video (of Junior Brown playing “My Wife Thinks You’re Dead” on Conan O’Brien’s talk show), you’ll see that in action. It’s pretty darned amazing.