T. Junior

“The cataclysmic boom of raw, honest country artists who grew up in the underground of metal and punk continues further with T. Junior. On Junior’s latest EP, Man in Gray, its seven songs are a little Hank 3, a little Muddy Waters, and maybe even some Jack White... but totally EyeHateGod bleak. There’s an inherent, bluesy darkness to T. Junior’s playing that overshadows some of his attempts at being sunny. The darkness that propelled our country heroes into the stratosphere should always be celebrated. Junior is completely capable of showcasing a penchant for sex, death, and depression while strumming away, sounding as if he were singing for his dinner in the streets of a long-forgotten America that’s now too fat and too stupid to understand what emotions really are anymore. Let the Corona drinking, sparkly guitar playing, arena pansies have their fun. The dregs of the dives have their bottles to count on, and Junior does nothing to dispel that notion. Using his love of metal and his bourbon-soaked upbringing in the dirty backwoods to celebrate all of the things that everyone else is too scared to talk about, the chops are there. The voice is there. It’s time we expanded the stage a few feet. We can use a new disciple in the church of misery in T. Junior. T. Junior is a songwriter who’s figuring it out as he goes, and as he’s growing, we’re seeing an artist emerge. It’s a welcomed feeling. It leaves you wondering... if only this guy met someone with some analog gear and let him go wild out in an abandoned farm house, what would we hear? The pieces are there; it feels like it’s a step into a mental asylum that all of the inmates could be let out at any second. The uneasiness, the mournful sorrow of the moment, it’s all there.”