Semi Crazy | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1996 | |||
Genre | Country, rock and roll | |||
Label | MCG/Curb Records [1] | |||
Producer | Junior Brown | |||
Junior Brown chronology | ||||
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Semi Crazy is an album by the American musician Junior Brown, released in 1996. [2] [3] It contains the crossover hit "Surf Medley", featuring three popular surf rock songs.
The album peaked at No. 32 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. [4] Brown supported Semi Crazy by touring with the Mavericks. [5] Its first single was "Venom Wearing Denim". [6]
The album was produced by Brown. [7] "Semi-Crazy" is a duet with Red Simpson. [8] "Hong Kong Blues" was written by Hoagy Carmichael. [9] Brown's intention was to craft a mainstream album; he did not want to be considered a revivalist/traditionalist or an outsider artist. [10]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [11] |
The Austin Chronicle | [12] |
Robert Christgau | [13] |
Entertainment Weekly | A− [14] |
The Indianapolis Star | [15] |
Los Angeles Times | [16] |
Orlando Sentinel | [17] |
Rolling Stone | [18] |
Robert Christgau deemed the album "the essence of Western swing—jazzy picking, lousy singing, and a light heart." [13] Entertainment Weekly wrote: "A virtuoso picker (guitar freaks will appreciate the jaw-dropping pyrotechnics of 'I Hung It Up', and his definitive 'Surf Medley'), Brown’s a casually irreverent humorist to boot." [14] Rolling Stone thought that Brown "straddles the fence between Nashville airplay and Texas grit" on "Gotta Get Up Every Morning" and "Surf Medley". [18] The Orlando Sentinel determined that the album "is chock full of the kind of catchy, clever, instantly memorable songs that used to be a staple of country radio." [17]
Texas Monthly called "Semi-Crazy" "the first decent truckin’ song in more than a decade." [19] The Chicago Reader stated that "while Brown and his band may look like Republican staffers, his witty, jaunty music is anything but conservative." [20] The Los Angeles Times concluded that "by stretching stories of wayward lovers almost beyond believability—as Hank Williams himself often did—Brown magnifies and clarifies the very real emotions underlying them." [16] The Indianapolis Star considered the album to be "a masterpiece" and "a collection of Ernest Tubb-meets-Jimi Hendrix country music." [15]
AllMusic wrote that Brown's "clever lyrics, Ernest Tubb-like voice, and virtuoso guitar playing ... are once again intact and on the mark." [11]
Track 10 is an instrumental cover medley: "Pipeline" by The Chantays, "Walk Don't Run" by The Ventures, and "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers. [21] All other songs by Junior Brown except track 4 by F Carter, Jr., track 5 by Brown and R. Avis, track 6 by Hoagy Carmichael.
Jamieson "Junior" Brown is an American country guitarist and singer. He has released twelve studio albums in his career, and has charted twice on the Billboard country singles charts. Brown's signature instrument is the "guit-steel" double neck guitar, a hybrid of electric guitar and lap steel guitar.
"Stardust" is a 1927 song composed by Hoagy Carmichael, with lyrics later added by Mitchell Parish. Soon considered a standard of the Great American Songbook, the song has been recorded as an instrumental or vocal track over 1,500 times. Carmichael developed a taste for jazz while attending Indiana University. He formed his own band and played at local events in Indiana and Ohio. Following his graduation, Carmichael moved to Florida to work for a law firm. He left the law sector and returned to Indiana, after learning of the success of one of his compositions. In 1927, after leaving a local university hangout, Carmichael started to whistle a tune that he later developed further. When composing the song, he was inspired by the end of one of his love affairs, and on the suggestion of a university classmate, he decided on its title. The same year, Carmichael recorded an instrumental version of the song for Gennett Records.
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