Singer/songwriter/all around nice guy Junior Brown has been thrilling people with his innovative guitar style and quirky sense of humor for decades, and on Sat., Dec. 4, he’s coming back to Carbondale to wow fans again.

Brown, who spent much of his professional life as the best-kept secret in Austin, has blurred the line between rhythm and blues, country, rock and alternative genres his entire professional career. His new album, “Down Home Chrome,” is a throwback to the classic days of country, but still incorporates his wild flavors.

The Daily Egyptian recently spoke with Brown about the state of country music, covering Hendrix tunes and that crazy looking two-headed guit-steel.

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Daily Egyptian:This new album rocks. What were you feeling before you went into the studio this time around to record “Down Home Chrome?”

Junior Brown:First of all, thanks. That’s good to hear. [For this album] I had songs that I hadn’t had a chance to use before. I also went back and got some things I’d written a long time ago and added a verse there and a verse here. There are some new songs that I’ve written very recently too.

DE:A lot of people consider you to be a traditionalist in a lot of aspects, but you’ve always been able to throw your own twists in here and there. How do keep doing this again and again?

JB:I don’t know if I try to do it, because it just happens. Any music, if you play it long enough, can get boring, and I come from a lot of different things – not just country music. I played rock n’ roll in high school like everybody did. I didn’t grow up on a farm or anything like that.

DE:Speaking of rock n’ roll, you covered Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” on the new album. Were you hesitant at all to cover a Hendrix song?

JB:Not really. It’s a song that I do in my live show. It works well there, so I thought it would be a good song to put on the album.

DE:This record has definite motifs of guitars, cars and women. Was that something you tried purposely to do to fit into that classic rhythm and blues style of music?

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JB:Well, it’s just that I’m old and that’s what I come from – the ’60s. That’s when I was growing up, so that’s the kind of stuff that comes out.

DE:Are there any newer types of music that influence you today?

JB:The stuff I’m doing more of now are Mexican story songs because when I was a kid I lived in New Mexico, and I heard a lot of mariachi music and coritos, which are Mexican story songs. I’ve been getting into those lately because I enjoy the different style of singing.

DE:I know you’ve worked with your wife, Tanya Rae Brown, recently and she has her own CD out. Was the collaboration harder for you because of the expectations or easier due to your relationship?

JB:Oh, it’s easier because we’ve been together for a long time and the song that I sang with her on the album was one I wrote to sing with her a while ago. Only now we’ve finally had the chance to record it. It’s a lot of fun.

DE:You’ve had he pleasure of playing at the Grand Ole Opry. How was that experience?

JB:It was all right. When I first played there it was more of a country show, now it’s just a little bit country. The old timers still get up and do stuff there, but it’s been sort of taken over by the redneck rockers.

DE:Is this ‘redneck rocker’ fad something you see a lot of these days in country music?

JB:There are still some tender love ballads like there have always been, but what’s going on now is not really what I think of as country. Maybe it’s what some people consider country music, but I see as sort of redneck. I think it’s two different things.

DE:Are there any bright stars in country music these days?

JB:I don’t know. I don’t really keep track of it anymore. As I said before, I’m more into the Spanish language music. I’m listening to artists like Antonio Aguilar and Jose Alfredo Jimenez.

DE:Are you going to be playing the new Spanish music at the Mugsy Entertainment Center?

JB:Not much. It’s just what I’m listening to now and working on in my spare time.

DE:Let’s talk a little about your guitar, the guit-steel. Do you have a patent for it?

JB:Yes, I do. For a long time I thought about glueing on this old steel guitar on to the guitar I had. Only one night I had a dream and realized that it wasn’t a question of glueing something on to something – it was a question of creating a double-neck instrument. So the dream kind of helped me visualize that.

DE:How many of these guit-steels do you own?

JB:Three, and a fourth one is being built. That one is going to have pedals on it.

DE:So are these instruments still in production?

JB:Nope. Just when I make them. (laughs)

Junior Brown begins at 10 p.m. Saturday at the Mugsy’s Entertainment Center. For more information call 457-6847.