JUNIOR BROWN returns to Claremore

The big headliner at the Blue Grass and Chili Festival in Claremore was Junior Brown. He's one of the most versatile musicians in the business. He's a guitar player, singer, and songwriter, and

Friday, September 7th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The big headliner at the Blue Grass and Chili Festival in Claremore was Junior Brown. He's one of the most versatile musicians in the business. He's a guitar player, singer, and songwriter, and the News on Six's Rick Wells talked to him about Friday night's show and his very unique style.

Junior: "I do my own thing, There's no guit-steel players, singer songwriter, guit-steel players out there to compete with me, with a Ernest Tubb Little Jimmy Dickens type hat.â€ Heâ€™s an original, when you think of Junior Brown there's that hat, but that creation he calls a "Guit-steel" is the thing that really sets him apart from everyone else. "The guit-steel was something I needed. I always played guitar and steel guitar, when I was singing it was very cumbersome to unplug one and plug in something else." So he came up with the idea of a double neck guitar that has both. It allows him to switch back and forth much more easily.

Junior's been playing guitar since he was a kid but his mid 90's hits "My Wife Thinks Youâ€™re Dead" and "Highway Patrol" really gave his career a boost. "They were more video hits than anything else, but they took off pretty well." Yes, they did in fact "My Wife Thinks You're Dead" won the Country Music Association best video award in "96. His new album, Mixed Bag is. There's a little Rock, Jazz, Blues country it's all there in his unique style. Folks in Claremore ought to remember him from his days at Rogers State University. "I was up there with Leon and Eldon, Leon McAuliffe and Elsdon Shamblin, teaching lessons as well as playing in Leon's little school band up there."

In fact, Rogers State is where Junior met his wife, so playin and singin in Claremore ought to be like a reunion. Junior Brown performed Friday at the 22nd Bluegrass and Chili Festival in Claremore.