Junior Brown - The Austin Experience

 Although he occasionally falls into purposeful near-parody in a bid for commercial sales, Junior Brown is one of my favorite living guitarists - a master of both the Telecaster and steel guitar, which he has combined for his custom guit-steel! Although I have only been able to see him once so far, his abilities astonished me and the occasional live cut that I've heard has been terrific so this Live at the Continental Club in Austin, Texas was a sure-fire buy for me. As usual, he is accompanied by his wife Tanya Rae Brown along with bassist Johnny Penner and, for some reason, an unnamed drummer. 

For me, his guitar playing is always the star and in a live setting he does tend to stretch out a bit more, rather than relying solely on his (legitimately) humorous numbers like the opening three, "Broke Down South of Dallas", "Party Lights" and, a crowd favorite, "My Wife Thinks You're Dead". For me, the highlights are numbers like the 8+ minute workout, "I Hung It Up" as his flies over his two fretboards while always playing tastefully. He brings on Flaco Jimenez on accordion for the Spanish-sung "Juan Charasquado", he hicks it up in "Highway Patrol", "Gotta Get Up Every Morning" and "Lifeguard Larry" but "Long Walk Back to San Antone" is more straight-laced (straight-faced?) country, with some excellent playing, Junior duets with Tanya on the bluegrass-ish "I Want to Live and Love Always" and he closes with his surf-laden (and drum dominant - who is the mystery man or woman?) "Rock and Roll Guitar Medley", unleashing more riffs than you can count!

Great stuff, as always, despite the forays into lyrical silliness - still totally recommended!