BluesWax Sittin' In With
Junior Brown
At World Caf� Live!
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
By Beardo
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Junior Brown And His Guit-Steel
Arriving early to get the interview portion of the evening
out of the way and finding Junior Brown reluctant to talk "due to
illness," we spend the hours of time-killing wandering the building and
its multiple music spaces, restaurant, and broadcasting facilities. Fantastic!
The brand spanking new World Caf� Live! in Philadelphia, the new studio/venue of
the World Caf� radio program, is a story unto itself and I shall get to it in a
future BluesWax. It is a world-class music venue!
I meet Junior in his tour bus, which I must say, passed the
road-smell test with flying colors. My feet didn't even stick to the floor!
Sitting in the aisle in a folding chair, I notice lying in a bunk next to me
the famous Guit-Steel (Junior's own vision, a double necked electric six-sting
on top and steel guitar on the bottom, brought to reality by guitar maker
Michael Stevens). I found Junior to be a very private person with deep
thoughts. He seemed reluctant, even shy, as he didn't make much eye contact for
the first part of the interview that now follows:
Beardo for Blueswax: First things first. My old
man, who passed a couple years ago now, in his lifetime only admitted to me
about liking three artists. They were Little Jimmy Dickens, Roy Orbison, and
you. You're in pretty lofty company!
Junior Brown: Oooh, wow! Those three? Ha ha, that's
an interesting combination. I really appreciate that.
Good start, put him at ease a little. Now to get some
background, let's see ... he was born in Indiana ...
JB: No, Arizona. I've lived so many places it's just
hard for people to remember, but when they ask me I have to tell them, it's
Arizona.
Damned Internet! Even the National Public Radio site had
Indiana!
BW: Okay, let me try this bit of possible misinformation
.. you're 53, right?
JB: 52 ...
BW: Me, too. You old fuck you. How do you feel? [Junior is
laughing pretty hard here] Seriously, you reach these plateaus, 30, 40, 50,
things change, you know.
JB: Well, I do know I'm playing better than ever.
There's no problem with the fingers or anything else, but I do notice I think
about things more than I ever did before.
BW: I know your band is thinking a lot about November.
Here I relate the story about the serious political
conversation in the dressing room with drummer extraordinaire Peter Amaral.
Junior gets a good laugh out of this and doesn't seem too surprised.
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Junior Brown's Down Home
Chrome
Click Cover For More Info
BW: I'm not hammering this 50 thing, but do you tour as
much as before or do you stick mostly to home in Texas?
JB: I actually live in Oklahoma now. I know, it is
confusing. I have a few places. You know that cabin behind me on the new
record? That's a place I built in the Hill Country outside of Austin.
BW: Back to that cover and your obvious affliction with
Detroit Iron, do you have a car collection?
JB: Oh, yeah. I don't buy them anymore; they just
accumulated over the years. I like the old trucks the best, the pick-ups.
BW: With all the truck driving material in your catalog I
thought perhaps you took a few shifts behind the wheel, true?
JB: [laughing] No, no, no. The old truck driving
tunes went out of style but are being brought back now as sort of a novelty
thing. I mean, I do a song about being a prisoner doesn't mean I am one.
[Laughing]
BW: I wasn't going to ask if you were an ex-con, or a
janitor, honest! [Laughing too]
JB: The emotion is always there though. If I can
relate to an emotion in the subject matter, I'll interpret it that way and
write a song around it.
Conversation turned to Tanya Rae, Mrs. Junior
Brown, and her absence on this tour, her EP Meet
The Mrs.-Tanya Rae Brown and Junior's attachment to it, his production,
musical participation, and duet with her.
JB: Her record is almost an underground thing, not
that many people know about it. I'm very proud of it.
BW: How did you end up on Telarc records? Did they seek
you out?
JB: Yes, they approached me with interest and I liked
everyone I met out there. They were very nice to me. You can tell they are fans
of the music not just the numbers.
BW: Is that your real voice or are you channeling Ernest
Tubb?
JB: Ha ha. Well, I don't know. I just interpret
stuff, like impressionist art. That's kinda what I do. If I mix things up like
put a slide guitar in a song instead of a steel guitar or a synthesizer or some
really interesting idea, it would really take away from the original style. I
don't start out to imitate a style when I do that any more than I would a Jimi
Hendrix song. I'm not confusing that with being original. That sort of
thing is ... ummmm, how do I put it? When I do "Foxey Lady," that is
a novelty and a tribute to him. When I write a song, say in the style of
Hendrix, it's more like interpretive art. I'm not trying to say I'm like that,
I'm not trying to say I grew up on a farm like Ernest Tubb. I grew up more around
modern art than I did country people. My family was into that so I tend to see
music that way. I'm just re-inventing things in a post-modern world. I copy,
I'm not afraid to admit it. Some people come off like they invented it, [in a
mock boastful voice] "I've been doing this since the fifties!" And
they haven't, I'm not like that. I've played in clubs for 35 years and learned
some chops there, but as far as being the cowboy off the farm, that's not me.
Long answer to your short question, ha, ha, ha.
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Photo by Beardo
BW: A great answer, very insightful. It begs the question
of your stage appearance.
JB: Over the years, dressing up became part of it.
Wearing the big hat is because I'm short and it makes me look taller.
[Laughter] Little things you do that work, you know. The guit-steel is unique
and a usable tool that works for me. When I imitate, I'm not imitating there,
that's original. I'm the only one guy that did that, [laughingly] I don't think
I have to worry about any competition there! It's visual and just came about as
the evolution went along. I'm always thinking and jumping around. I'm doing
some Spanish music now, I really enjoy Spanish music ... Corridos, story songs
.. not necessarily acoustic, you know, my own thing.
BW: You mentioned Hendrix, did you ever see him perform?
JB: Oh yeah, but you could tell he was really tired.
It was near the end of his life and they were really running him around. It was
sad, but don't get me wrong, it was still Hendrix.
BW: It seems to me that you're still having fun. True?
JB: Oh yeah, except the road, you know ... the food,
etc. But it's always good to be playing for a different crowd. It keeps us
going.
Play on Brother...
Beardo is a senior contributing editor at BluesWax. Beardo
may be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED].
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This Week in BluesWax:
Junior Brown
- In the E-zine:
BluesWax is Sittin' In With Junior Brown. Join Senior Contributing
Editor Beardo as he sits down with Junior Brown before a recent show in
Philadelphia, and then check out the show in Blues Beat!
- On the News Page:
Benefit Show This Weekend In Long Beach; Judging For The Blues Foundation's
Best Self-Produced CD Contest Begins; IBC Breaks 100 Bands!; Rare Dylan TV
Interview This Weekend; Cicero Blake Injured; Prays For Frankie Lee;
All-Digital Download Label Launches; Still Time To Vote For Maples; Cool Show
In Italy; Deal On Brother Elwood's
New Book; Toronto Blues Society's Christmas Party; Mark Hummel's 14th
Annual Blues Harmonica Blowout; Bandana Blues News; Blue Band Benefit; and
more!
- On the Photo
Page: Junior Brown Live!
- On the Blues
Bytes page: In his first article, new BluesWax Contributing Editor
Reverend Billy C. Wirtz talks about Beach Music. No, not the Beach Boys ...
check out Part Two of this great documentary on the origins of Beach music from
the coast of the Carolinas.
- On the Blues
Beat page: Junior Brown played the new World Caf� Live and BluesWax was
there. Check out the performance of this genre-bending artist.
- Under BluesWax
Picks: Eric Wrisley reviews the latest project from James
"Blood" Ulmer called the 52nd Street Blues Project and
their release, Blues & Grass; Beardo reviews Junior Brown's Down
Home Chrome, Nora Jean Bruso's Going Back To Mississippi, and Albert
Cummings' True to Yourself; plus reviews of Stockholm Syndrome's Holy
Happy Hour and the recent Paul Rishell and Annie Raines release, Goin'
Home.
- One
Year Ago Today In BluesWax: BluesWax was "Sittin' In With
Nick Curran, Part One." Check out what this Handy Award winner was up to a
year ago.
- Don't forget to play the Blues Trivia
Game: Remember, everyone who plays is in the drawing for the prize!
This week's prize: a two CD pack! The pack includes Time Will Come by
John-Alex Mason, courtesy of our friends at Naked Jaybird Music and Live in
Atlanta by Fiona Boyes featuring Bob Margolin, courtesy of our friend Fiona
Boyes and Blue Empress Records. Play Today!
