Photo Review: Mary Kutter and Junior Brown, Special Guest for Hank Williams, Jr.

Kentucky-raised and Nashville-based, Mary Kutter writes songs that live in the gray area, blurring genre lines and creative narratives. Drawing from country storytelling and rock-leaning intensity, her music favors sharp images over easy answers. As both a songwriter and recording artist, Kutter gravitates toward characters on the edge, flawed, resilient, and unapologetically human.

Before stepping fully into her own voice as an artist, she built a reputation as a songwriter willing to go where others would not, with her work appearing on major-label releases and charting records by Bailey Zimmerman, Nate Smith, and Zach John King. 

Those experiences sharpened her instincts and reinforced her belief that the most powerful songs are the ones that tell the truth plainly, without sanding down the rough edges. Onstage, Kutter brings that same intensity into the room. Her performances are direct and unfiltered, rooted in connection rather than theatrics.

Whether playing intimate venues or larger stages, she commands attention through presence, letting the songs do the heavy lifting. With “Bed of Roses,” Kutter begins a new chapter defined by confidence, clarity, and a refusal to soften the point.

Junior Brown, with his unique voice, more unique songwriting, and even more unique double-necked “Guit-Steel” guitar, there has absolutely never been ANYONE like him. He’s an American Original. Born in 1952 in Cottonwood, Arizona, Junior Brown showed an affinity for music at an early age when the family moved to a rural area of Indiana near Kirksville. In the following years, Junior began to experience Country music and remembers it as “growing up out of the ground like the crops – it was everywhere; coming out of cars, houses, gas stations, and stores like the soundtrack of a story, but Country music programs on TV hadn’t really come along much yet; not until the late fifties.” Discovering a guitar in his grandparents’ attic, he spent the next several years woodshedding with records and the radio. Junior was also able to tap into music he couldn’t hear at home, which older, college-aged kids were listening to. This was possible due to his father’s employment at small campuses throughout the next decade as the family moved twice again. As a young boy, he was able to experience the thrill of performing before live audiences, at parties, school functions, even singing and playing guitar for five thousand Boy Scouts at an Andrews Air Force Base jamboree; then, while still a teenager, getting the chance to sit in with Rock and Roll pioneer Bo Diddley. Armed with this broad spectrum of influences, he began to develop a storehouse of musical chops.

Junior Brown is currently finishing up recording on his latest album, “Deep In The Heart Of Me”. The release date is slated for Spring 2017. Junior’s performance on the promotional song, “Better Call Saul,” was recorded and released both as a video on AMC as well as a flexible 33 1/3rd vinyl record included in the show’s box set from Season One. Junior, Tanya Rae, and the band continue to tear up the highways and no doubt will be appearing in concert near you one of these days. Seeing Junior live is a definite must, so GUIT WITH IT ’cause he’s AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL!

For complete tour information and all things Mary Kutter, follow on social media: on Instagram at instagram.com/marykutter/, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mary.kutter, and online at www.marykutter.com/#artistsSec.

For complete tour information and all things Junior Brown, follow on social media: on Facebook at facebook.com/OfficialJuniorBrown/, and online at www.juniorbrown.com/.

For all things Acrisure Amphitheater, follow on social media: on Instagram at instagram.com/acrisureamphitheater/, on Facebook at facebook.com/acrisureamphitheatergr, on YouTube at youtube.com/@AcrisureAmphitheater, on X at @AcrisureAmp, and online atwww.acrisureamphitheater.com/.

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