Thursday, December 14, 2017

Listening to the Sandals...

...on YouTube the last couple of days brought me to this video of a guy named Junior Brown whom I don't think I had ever heard. Who is this guy?, I thought, and what the hell is he playing?

From Wikipedia:

Jamieson "Junior" Brown is an American country guitarist and singer. 

Aha! That explains it.

Brown's signature instrument is the "guit-steel" double neck guitar, a hybrid of electric guitar and lap steel guitar.

I have to admit, I've never heard of that.

In 1985, Brown created a new type of double-neck guitar, with some assistance from Michael Stevens. Brown called the instrument his "guit-steel." When performing, Brown plays the guitar by standing behind it, while it rests on a small music stand. The top neck on the guit-steel is a traditional six-string guitar, while the lower neck is a full-size lap steel guitar for slide playing. . . Brown has stated that the invention of the guit-steel was always a matter of convenience so that he could play both lap steel and lead guitar during live performances and not directly motivated by a desire to be a "one man band."

Finally,

Although Brown plays such neotraditional country styles as honky-tonk, Western swing, etc., few of his performances will finish without some blues and Tex-Mex tunes playing as well as surf rock instrumentals.

Cool.

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