Junior Brown plays New Year's Eve at Bandera's 11th Street Cowboy Bar

The guit-steel virtuoso brings his double-necked honky-tonk to the Cowboy Capital's best-known dance floor on Dec. 31.

Picture a big dance floor under the stars in Bandera, a two-step going strong, and up front a knot of guitar nerds who came to watch one man's hands. That's New Year's Eve with Junior Brown.

Brown plays the 11th Street Cowboy Bar on Thursday, Dec. 31, with the show starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are through Outhouse Tickets. The date was announced Oct. 26.

The instrument is the story, so start there. Brown plays the guit-steel, a double-necked hybrid of an electric guitar and a lap steel, as Wikipedia describes it. He came up with the idea in 1985, and the first full version, "Old Yeller," was built a few years later by Austin luthier Michael Stevens. A decade on, the two reunited to update the design, and "Big Red" was born, as The Trucker recounts.

What he does with it is the reason people drive in. Guitar Player has called him bar-band virtuosity personified. It's honky-tonk in one breath and surf-rock fireworks in the next, and as one writer at Westword put it, there's usually a gaggle of guitar geeks standing in front of the stage. The listing tags him as country and rock, and both are fair.

The hands on the guit-steel are the show. The dance floor is the party.

Then there's the room. The 11th Street Cowboy Bar sits in an old wood-framed building with an outdoor stage and a big dance floor built for two-stepping under the stars, per Texas Monthly. It and Arkey's have both been recognized by the State of Texas for keeping honky-tonk tradition alive, and the bar is the center of Bandera's Cowboy Mardi Gras each February, CultureMap reported. Texas Highways calls it historic, and in a town that bills itself as the Cowboy Capital of the World, that means something.

Put those together and you get a good fit. Brown usually headlines rooms of around 500, and a honky-tonk with a big floor gives his music what it wants: people dancing to it, not just watching.

The practical notes: the show starts at 8, which gives you a long run at the dance floor before midnight. Bandera is a drive from San Antonio for a lot of people, so plan your ride home now, or book a room in town and make a night of it.

New Year's Eve in a lot of places means a DJ and a balloon drop. In Bandera this year it means a two-step to one of the best players in Texas.

Sources: Junior Brown - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Double-necked biscuit board drives Junior Brown's semi-crazy career - The Trucker (thetrucker.com); Here's Why Junior Brown is Bar-Band Virtuosity Personified - Guitar Player (guitarplayer.com); A Lighter Shade of Brown - Westword (westword.com); Where to stay, shop, ride and two-step in Bandera - Texas Monthly (texasmonthly.com); Cowboy Mardi Gras - CultureMap Dallas (dallas.culturemap.com); Bandera's historic 11th Street Cowboy Bar - Texas Highways (texashighways.com); Junior Brown at 11th Street Cowboy Bar - Outhouse Tickets (events.outhousetickets.com); Junior Brown at 11th Street Cowboy Bar - JamBase (jambase.com)