Junior Brown

Junior Brown (born 1953) is an American country guitarist and singer from Kirksville, Indiana. 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-80s he was teaching guitar at the Hank Thompson School of Country Music at Rogers State University, in Claremore, Oklahoma. In 1985 he invented a double-necked guitar with Michael Stevens (see 1985 in music). He called it a "guit-steel". He actually plays this guitar standing behind it while it rests in a small podium / music stand. The top neck is a traditional 6 string "Fender Telecaster" style neck while the lower neck is basically a full on steel guitar for slide playing. There is a pocket in the body of the guitar to take the slide while 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 (1993 in music). Both albums cemented his reputation as one of the more critically acclaimed country singers of the 1990s.