I heard a song by Junior Brown on the radio the other day, and it made me want to go ahead and pull out my 0ld copy of Guit With It, the album he recorded way back in 1993.  I had almost forgotten what a formidable talent he is, and what a truly original artist. 

With his "hip-but-square" appearance, his deep, smooth baritone voice with just the right amount of twang and vibrato, his wicked sense of humor and his ability to blend a wide variety of musical styles, it's a shame that he remains on the fringes of both country and pop music.

Guit With It runs the gamut from pure country ("Doin' What Comes Easy to a Fool") to Western Swing ("Sugarfoot Rag") to real blues ("Guit-Steel Blues"), and ends with a charming acoustic love song to his wife, "The Gal From Oklahoma", which sounds like it might have been recorded on his front porch.

You might be asking yourself what he's holding in the picture above.  It's an instrument of his own invention, called a "guit-steel".  (He says that the idea for it came to him in a dream.)  As you can see, on the top is is an electric six-string guitar, and on the bottom is a lap steel guitar.  I was lucky enough to get to see him play live once, and watching him work that thing was a real experience.

In addition to playing some of the most straight-ahead traditional country you'd ever want to hear, Brown also has a number of what you might call humorous songs, including one of my all-time favorites, "Highway Patrol".

He usually reserves a spot on his records and in his live shows for some incredible instrumental work, including surf and even some Jimi Hendrix riffs.  He plays like a man possessed.