Junior Brown - Mixed Bag

 

Came upon this one quite by accident but it was at a discount price so I took a chance since I'm a big Junior Brown fan and love to hear what he does on his git-steel.

Right from the start, he's showing off his bag'o'licks'n'tricks in the appropriately titled "Guitar Man" - if there's a better player out there these days, I don't know of them, cuz Brown is a true master at his craft and on his twin instruments. Great way to open an album! Gotta love the title "Ain't Gonna Work Today" and for this one he creates one of his mid-tempo, steel-git country numbers, while in "Riverboat Shuffle" he mixes kinda Dixieland with jump-blues and country as only he can, with horns mixing with his steel, honky-tonkin' piano and lots more! He gives us a nice country ballad in "Our First Bluebonnet Spring", pulls off some rare wah-wah effects for his exotic, overseas spy number with funny lyrics, "Cagey Bea" (KGB, geddit?), another ballad in "Runnin' With the Wind", and he lets loose with his incredible flyin' fingers in "Catfish and Collard Greens", an upbeat country-blues, unbelievably fast but still tasteful - what a talent!

Bringing it back to a more sedate mid-tempo for a heartfelt (apparent) childhood remembrance for "Little Town Square", referencing both a person and a place, a similar feel for "Hard Livin' Hard" and then a bouncy urban blues in "Kansas City Blues" - love the way he combines country'n'blues licks here and there is some surprise sax soloing, as well - another country ballad in "Grow Up America" where he unexpectedly, somewhat obliquely, references modern politics in a way that doesn't really take sides, although I take it as anti-gun-violence, but then he comes back for a light-hearted grand finale with more fast-paced playin' for "The Chase" - more great work on both of his fretboards!

Junior is a modern country cat who plays real country - not the crappy pop that makes the charts these days - and is one of the best players around. I love it when he lets loose and shows off, but he can be slow'n'heartfelt, as well. If you dig old school country, you gotta dig Junior! Another good one!