Brown was born in
Cottonwood, Arizona; at an early age, his family moved to
Kirksville, Indiana. He first learned to play piano from his father (Samuel Emmons Brown Jr.) "before I could talk". His music career began in the 1960s, and he worked through that decade and the next singing and playing pedal steel and guitar for groups such as the Last Mile Ramblers, Dusty Drapes and the Dusters, Billy Spears, and
Asleep at the Wheel while developing his guitar skills. In the early 1980s, he appeared on stage with
Rank and File as the replacement for
Alejandro Escovedo, but he did not feature on any recordings by that band. By the mid-1980s, Brown was teaching guitar at the
Hank Thompson School of Country Music at
Rogers State University in
Claremore, Oklahoma. 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-sized
lap-steel guitar for slide playing. Brown has two guit-steels for recording and live work. The original instrument, dubbed "Old Yeller", has as its standard six-string guitar portion the neck and pickups from Brown's previous stage guitar, a
Fender Bullet. The second guit-steel, named "Big Red", has a neck laser-copied from the Bullet neck; in addition to electric guitar pickups, though, both the standard and lap-steel necks use identical
Sho-Bud lap-steel pickups. A pocket in the upper bout of the guitar holds the slide bar when it is not in use. Brown also commissioned a "pedal guit-steel", which adds pedals to the instrument for more musical control. Brown has stated that the invention of the guit-steel was always a matter of convenience so 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". Brown played a cameo part in "
Drive", the second episode of season six of
The X-Files. Brown's music has been showcased on various television series and movie soundtracks, including
Me, Myself & Irene,
SpongeBob SquarePants, and the 2005
Dukes of Hazzard remake, in which he also played the narrator. Although Brown plays such
neotraditional country styles as
honky-tonk,
Western swing, etc., some of his performances finish with some
blues and
Tex-Mex tunes playing, as well as
surf rock instrumentals. Beginning in August 2006, Brown joined
Webb Wilder's tour of American minor league baseball stadiums. He reprised his role in an episode ("World of Hurt, BC") of
Adult Swim's
Xavier: Renegade Angel created by rock band
PFFR. In April 2008, Brown shot three pilot episodes of a country-music program modeled after programs from the early 1960s, in which Brown would play with a
house band, as well as guests, as host of the show. On October 12, 2012, Brown released the EP
Volume 10, containing six new songs. AMC previewed the video of his new song "
Better Call Saul", on October 5, 2014. On May 24, 2018, Brown released his 11th album,
Deep in the Heart of Me. On May 27, 2020,
Rolling Stone's listing of 50 Country Albums Every Rock Fan Should Own, honored Brown’s US-released album,
12 Shades of Brown (Curb Records, 1993). ==Discography==