In the 1995 Reader's Poll issue of Guitar Player Magazine, I saw a photo of Junior playing his ‘Guit-steel' and said to myself - there's somebody I've got to meet and photograph. In 1996 he came to Washington and I was there. This guy plays all over the guitar and I mean all-over. Sometimes he seems to be on another planet, eyes rolled up into his head, cheeks sucked in, almost like his soul is being pulled out of a small hole in his scull. Nobody else mixes Jimi Hendrix and Ernest Tubb on the pedal steel guitar. He is fantastic!

I've photographed Junior and his band (which includes his lovely and talented wife Tanya Rae on rhythm guitar) all over the United States. My first cover of Guitar Player Magazine was a shot made during my first session with Junior at the Smithsonian in 1996.

(Nikon F4s, 300 f/2.8 Tamron, Ilford HP-5)

click on the small image to view a larger version in .jpg format.

All images © J. Brian Stephens . . .use only with permission