Junior Brown: Live at the Continental Club: The Austin Experience

Junior Brown is an anomaly in the country field. He might be considered mainstream — for example, his video of “My Wife Thinks You’re Dead” won awards from both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.

But the “flavor-of-the-year” Country Music Awards are unlikely to pay much attention to his 25-year career. Brown is rooted in the past, in the days of honky tonk and rock ‘n’ roll. His is beer-drinking, barroom music, best heard in a place like the Continental Club, the self-proclaimed “granddaddy of all Austin music venues” and Brown’s headquarters for many years.

Brown is famous for playing his own invention, the “guit-steel”. The double-necked instrument is a six-string electric guitar joined parallel to a steel guitar, so Brown does not have to switch between instruments.

On this, his first live CD, Brown begins with “Broke Down South of Dallas”, a three-chorder that he delivers in an authentic Country baritone. It might have been on the county charts 20 years ago except for a few instrumental touches, like the deft harmonics and the seemingly impossible low note string bends.

Many of the traditional sounding numbers here go over the three-minute mark to display guitar virtuosity, like the eight-and-a-half minute “I Hung It Up”. The lyrics are just a springboard for lighting fast runs, high note picking above the fretboard, scat singing in line with the picking melody, and even a short bit of the theme to Dragnet.

Bassist Johnny Penner and drummer Pete Amaral plod along anonymously. They are not even credited on my pre-release CD liner notes, although Brown name checks them at the end of the last track. But anything else would get in Brown’s way. He has obviously been playing these songs for years, fortunately without losing any of their spirit.

Brown has recaptured the humor of what I like to think of as real Country, as opposed to the white bread/flag waving travesties that have supplanted it on the radio. “My Wife Thinks You’re Dead” explains itself in the title. “Hillbilly Hula Gal” lets Junior show off Hawaiian steel licks. And “Lifeguard Larry” tells the story of a man who is suspiciously good at artificial resuscitation.

Brown’s lightning fast runs on both six-string and steel are no surprise. Neither is an appearance by his wife Tanya Rae, who sings a lively duet with him on “I Want to Live and Love Always”. “Juan Charasquado” is, however, an unexpected Tex-Mex number where Brown sings in Spanish and plays accordion.

“Rock and Roll Medley” is a nine-and-a-half minute instrumental workout that ends the CD. The surf instrumental “Pipeline” and “Secret Agent Man” are mixed in with “beat” music that would make Brown the guitar God of any ’50s rock and roll tour.

You can keep the many alt-country bands who affect to go back to their roots. Junior Brown IS the real thing, and you can hear it as soon as he starts to play.