Cowboy Mouth/Junior Brown

Time hasn't been kind to 1997's parade of one-hit wonder artists. European imports like The Prodigy ("Firestarter"), Chumbawamba ("I Get Knocked Down"), or The Cardigans ("Lovefool") haven't released a hit album on these shores since their glory years. The Raybon Brothers ("Butterfly Kisses") and She Moves ("Breaking All the Rules")...

By Benjamin Leatherman

January 14, 2010

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Time hasn't been kind to 1997's parade of one-hit wonder artists. European imports like The Prodigy ("Firestarter"), Chumbawamba ("I Get Knocked Down"), or The Cardigans ("Lovefool") haven't released a hit album on these shores since their glory years. The Raybon Brothers ("Butterfly Kisses") and She Moves ("Breaking All the Rules") have broken up, and the ska-punkers of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones ("The Impression That I Get") have been sentenced to smallish crowds and the occasional appearance on the annual Warped Tour. The fates have been a little bit kinder to New Orleans foursome Cowboy Mouth (whose biggest single was a 1997 live version of their signature song "Jenny Says . . ."), as they've amassed a following through non-stop touring and their upbeat brand of roots rock, which has been described as an "amalgamation of the Neville Brothers, the Sex Pistols, John Prine, and Jawbox." Cottonwood's own Junior Brown (whose trio of mid-'90s albums, Junior High, Semi Crazy, and Long Walk Back, each charted reasonably high) has also done pretty well for himself since his Clinton-era heyday, as his songs have been featured in such films as 2005's The Dukes of Hazzard and even on the SpongeBob SquarePants TV show. Oddly enough, there's also a Bob Dylan connection at work with both acts: Cowboy Mouth got their name from a verse of his "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" song (as did a '70s theatrical production by Patti Smith and Sam Shepard), while Brown actually toured with the folk legend in 2008.

Benjamin Leatherman is a staff writer for Phoenix New Times where he focuses primarily on arts, culture, music and nightlife. He joined New Times in 2003. Prior to that, he contributed to magazines such as Tips & Tricks and The Wrestler. Benjamin has earned multiple awards from the Arizona Press Club including an award for sports enterprise reporting in 2009 and an award for statewide arts reporting in 2014. He holds a bachelor’s of arts in journalism from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

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