Down Home Chrome

Junior Brown | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Telarc
• ASIN: B0002M5T8O
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,372 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If you think Junior had a tendency toward being pretty weird when he was being normal, wait 'til you hear him being weird. With its overabundance of '60s blues-rock guitar gimmicks, his awkwardly Xeroxed Hendrix vocals on "Foxy Lady," the lounge schlock of "You Inspire Me," a pun-filled story song ("Two Rons Don't Make It Right") that's absurd even by his usual standards, and a rampant misogyny that grows tedious even if it's meant to be funny, this album has its share of lapses. But when the man just bears down and plays it right on his guit-steel, as he does on "Hill Country Hot Rod Man" and the Chicago-style "Monkey Wrench Blues," he wipes the slate clean again. Though perhaps a couple notches below his best work, this'll still satisfy Brown's established fans. --John Morthland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Down Home Chrome, September 9, 2004

By 

P. Skvoretz (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Down Home Chrome (Audio CD)

I am a big Junior Brown fan and just picked up Down Home Chrome. For those of you who are fans, it is an average recording, on par with Semi Crazy and a step above Mixed Bag. I struggled with Mixed Bag, but have grown to like it, despite it being very uneven. All-in-all, Down Home Chrome is still a wonderful addition to your Junior Brown collection.

For those of you new to the Junior canon, hold off on this recording. Your introduction to his music should start with Guit With It, 12 Shades of Brown and/or Long Walk Back.

To get a real taste of Junior, you need to see him live. My first sample of Junior was with a bootleg live recording from Iowa. Then I saw him live for myself. He tours clubs frequently (like Fitzgerald's in Berwyn, IL) and is worth the trip and ticket price. My wife and I have seen him both with his wife Tanya and without, and the best live performance included her on rhythm guitar. The one time she was not present, that rhythm strumming was sorely missed.

Hope this helps.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Down Home Corn, May 10, 2005

By 

Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Down Home Chrome (Audio CD)

I've been a Junior Brown fan since the earlier days. Not only is he a superb guitarist, he is a clever and gifted songwriter whose facility with words sometimes leads him to write some of the most maudlin and corny yet literate country songs around.
On Down Home Chrome, Brown shines once again with his guit-steel virtuosity, but succumbs to writing some of the corniest songs I've heard in a long time. Like bad puns, some of the lyrics can really make a fan cringe.
What's good? I like The Bridge Washed Out, the swinging Hill Country Hot Rod Man, the traditional Let's Go Back, the jazzy You Inspire Me, a competent cover of Hendrix' Foxy Lady, and the obligatory bout with the blues, Monkey Wrench Blues.
The corniest of the bunch are Little Rivi-Airhead, Jimmy Jones, Two Rons Don't Make A Right, and Are You Just Cuttin' Up?.
Junior Brown's voice fits his style well and he seems best when playing either traditional style country or the blues. However, on Down Home Chrome there is not much of either. But he does have an excellent band so the music alone keeps this CD from falling below three stars.
Hard-core Junior Brown fans will like this, but some casual fans may drift away in dismay if he continues along his cornball path. But I look at it this way. Corniness is part of his musical persona, there were hints of it from the beginning and its not going to suddenly disappear. So if the down home corn makes you cringe, try to ignore that and focus on what attracted you to Brown's music in the first place. The basic Brown formulas and style are still intact.

4.0 out of 5 stars A premier CW artist that couldn't break into the Biz, November 14, 2011

By 

DRYWASHER-BILL (LAS VEGAS, NEVADA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Down Home Chrome (Audio CD)

There are a few musicians out there that produce a decent sound and work damn hard to promote their product, just to be left out in the cold by the music industry. Junior Brown is one of those, and had to pay his own bills without any front money or recording contract. A great versatile artist, tied into the 'texas' sound though born in Cottonwood AZ. Played bars and did concerts at his own expense, and always shunned by the Music gurus.

Maybe it was his quirky home-made guitar- maybe someone thought he was equally quirky, and reasdy to 'go off' should they sign him on. maybe it's his independent style of both rock sounds of Hendrix, or the next number tied in with a good old Ernest Tubb melody and singing style. Junior Brown just doesn't seem to get any respect, but he IS one of my favorite singers/songwriters/innovators that make his tunes a pleasure to listen to and follow through the words and chords. His guitar prowess with his own thingy-wingy is certainly entertaining enough, and stark reality singing Highway Patrol, or some other JB ditty anthem is certainly entertaining, especially if the listener is married, because that is just how the 'better half' thinks and acts, and if you don't believe it, it's probably because you are not in the marriage for the long haul.

Sitting in his jalopy, he could probably fit in with the Las Vegas Rockabilly crowd on its yearly foray to Las Vegas. Of course, it could also be reminiscent of having been kicked out of the house, and the only friends in town are his string music device, and the cushioned seat of his jalopy. No fenders either, so it may not be the best of modes of transport in rain or muddy road weather. Perhaps the smile is knowing that she doesn't have a gun pointed at him; leaving JB with plenty of time to work out the next tune and hopefully find the fame he deserves.