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Greg Brown | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Gregory Dane Brown |
Born | Fairfield, Iowa, U.S. | July 2, 1949
Genres | Folk |
Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) |
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Years active | 1967–present |
Labels | Red House |
Website | gregbrownmusic |
Gregory Dane Brown (born July 2, 1949) is an American folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from Iowa. [1]
Brown was born into a musical family, and his father was a Pentecostal minister. He grew up in the Hacklebarney region of southwestern Iowa, which he describes as "hill country." [2] Brown spent several years traveling with a band before returning to Iowa, where he performed live and pursued his songwriting career. [3]
During the 1980s Brown toured and had recurring performances on A Prairie Home Companion . [3] Brown self-published two albums, 44 & 66 and The Iowa Waltz . Bob Feldman and Susan Ode founded the record company called Red House Records after producing a sold-out concert at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1990. Brown became its first recording artist. [4] Brown has recorded two dozen albums. In 1986 he released an album called Songs of Innocence and of Experience based on poems by William Blake. His album One Big Town (1989) won an Indie Award from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors [5] and marked the beginning of Brown's long collaboration with Iowa guitarist Bo Ramsey.
The Poet Game (1994), his tenth studio album, saw significant international radio play (charting on AAA and topping The Gavin Report's Americana chart), and received a NAIRD Indie award for singer-songwriter Album of the Year. The Live One (1995) proved to be a fan favorite capturing the humor, warmth, insights and spirit of his live shows. His 1996 release, Further In , topped them all: critics called it a masterpiece and it received a four-star review in Rolling Stone. [6] Brown's 1997 release Slant 6 Mind earned him his second Grammy nomination. [5]
1999 brought the re-release of One Night , a live concert recording from October 1983 originally released on the Coffeehouse Extempore label. His album Solid Heart CD was recorded in 1999 during a benefit concert. Two releases followed in 2000: Over and Under (Trailer Records) and the critically acclaimed Covenant , which won the Association for Independent Music’s award for Best Contemporary Folk Album of 2000. A 2002 tribute album, Going Driftless: An Artist’s Tribute to Greg Brown featured guest vocal performances by Ani DiFranco, Gillian Welch, Shawn Colvin, and his three daughters.
In 2006 he released The Evening Call , which Acoustic Guitar magazine described as "among Brown's finest work" [7] and which was featured on an episode of NPR's On Point. [2] A recording of another benefit concert was recorded and released in 2007 under the name Yellow Dog on the EarthWorks Music label. In 2007, Brown was nominated for a Folk Alliance Award. [8] [9] In 2010, Brown played Hades on Hadestown , a concept album by Anaïs Mitchell. His most recent studio album, Hymns to What Is Left, was released in 2012.
Greg Brown has been married three times. He has one daughter from his first marriage: Pieta Brown; and two from his second marriage: Constance Brown and Zoe Brown—all three are musicians. He has one son. [10] Brown married singer-songwriter Iris DeMent in November 2002. In 2005, he and his wife adopted a daughter from Russia, Daria Chesnokva Victorona (Dasha Brown). [3]
Angela Maria "Ani" DiFranco is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums. DiFranco's music has been classified as folk rock and alternative rock, although it has additional influences from punk, funk, hip hop and jazz. She has released all her albums on her own record label, Righteous Babe.
Victoria Williams is an American singer, songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s, Williams was the catalyst for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.
Clyde Jackson Browne is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States.
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer-songwriter who has had a music career spanning more than sixty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a music educator as well as an advocate for folk singers to combine traditional songs with new compositions.
The Avett Brothers are an American folk rock band from Concord, North Carolina. The band is made up of two brothers, Scott Avett and Seth Avett along with Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon. Mike Marsh (drums), Tania Elizabeth (fiddle) and Bonnie Avett-Rini (piano) are touring members of the band.
Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. Born in Presque Isle, Aroostook County, Maine, Paul is a key figure in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, a literate, provocative, and urbanely romantic folk-pop style that helped ignite the folk revival of the 1990s. His pop music songs have appeared in movies and on television, bridging the gap between the modern folk sound and the populist traditions of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
Ana G. Egge is a Canadian/American musician and songwriter.
Red House Records is an independent folk and Americana record label in St. Paul, Minnesota. The label was founded in 1983 by Bob Feldman after seeing a performance by Iowa folk singer Greg Brown.
Anaïs Mitchell is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright. Mitchell has released eight studio albums, including Hadestown (2010), Young Man in America (2012), Child Ballads (2013), and Anaïs Mitchell (2022).
John Bassette was a folk singer/songwriter, poet and cable television personality in the Greater Cleveland, Ohio, United States, area. He was born in Hampton, Virginia, USA.
Pat Wictor is an American blues and folk musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and recording artist. Known for his ethereal style, he was nominated for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2006 by the Folk Alliance, and has released a number of solo albums. In 2010 Wictor co-founded the folk trio Brother Sun, with singer-songwriters Joe Jencks and Greg Greenway, and the band has since released two full albums and toured extensively. Wictor also has an extensive discography as a sideman, playing instruments such as lap slide guitar and dobro. He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
"These Days" is a song written by Jackson Browne and recorded by numerous artists. Browne wrote the song at age 16; its lyrics deal with loss and regret. It was first recorded by Nico in 1967 for her album Chelsea Girl, and Nico's arrangement was recorded by several other artists. Tom Rush recorded the tune with a string arrangement for his album Tom Rush in 1970. Gregg Allman recorded a new arrangement of the song for his 1973 LP Laid Back, and Browne released his own version, based on Allman's arrangement, on For Everyman, also in 1973. "These Days" has since been recorded by many other artists, and remains one of Browne's most enduring compositions.
Pieta Brown is a critically acclaimed American artist, musician, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who has released eight albums and five EPs. She has performed with artists such as Mark Knopfler, John Prine, Amos Lee, Justin Vernon and Calexico. Although she's considered a folk/indie singer-songwriter, Brown also names country blues and jazz as strong influences on her musical style.
If I Had Known: Essential Recordings, 1980–96 is a two-disc retrospective of music recorded by American folk singer/guitarist Greg Brown.
Ben Perowsky is an American drummer, percussionist, composer, and music producer. He is the drummer on stage in the 8 TONY award winning Broadway musical Hadestown. Perowsky leads the Ben Perowsky Trio, Moodswing Orchestra and Upstream Trio with Chris Speed and John Medeski. He is a founding member of the electric jazz group Lost Tribe. A prolific sideman, Perowsky has performed with Roy Ayers, John Scofield, The Lounge Lizards, Joan As Police Woman, Elysian Fields, Darryl Jenifer, Uri Caine, Dave Douglas, Mike Stern, Bob Berg, Walter Becker, Steven Bernstein., and John Zorn.
Timothy Seth Avett is one of the lead singers and founding members of the American folk-rock band The Avett Brothers. Avett sings and plays guitar, drums, bass, and piano for the band based out of Concord, North Carolina. In 2008, their album, The Second Gleam, reached the number ten spot on Billboard.com's Top Independent Albums chart, and stayed there for three weeks.
Hadestown is the fourth studio album by American folk singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, and was released by Righteous Babe Records on March 9, 2010. The concept album, which became the basis for the stage musical of the same name, follows a variation on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, where Orpheus must embark on a quest to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld. It has been advertised as a "folk opera". Several of the songs feature singers other than Mitchell, including Justin Vernon, Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Ben Knox Miller and Tanya, Petra and Rachel Haden.
Michael Chorney is an American saxophone and guitar player, composer, arranger, and music producer. His bands include Feast or Famine, So-Called Jazz Quintet, So-Called Jazz Sextet, ViperHouse, Magic City, Orchid, 7 Deadly Sins, the Michael Chorney Sextet, and Hollar General.
The Haden Triplets, Petra, Tanya, and Rachel, are musicians who have performed individually in bands and together. They are the daughters of jazz double-bassist Charlie Haden.
The musical Hadestown, written by American singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and based on her 2010 studio album of the same name, has had two official cast recordings. In addition, various songs from Hadestown were re-recorded by Mitchell for her 2014 studio album Xoa, including the musical's opening number "Anyway the Wind Blows" which had not appeared on the original concept album. The song "Why We Build the Wall" has been covered by a variety of artists, including English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg for his 2017 EP Bridges Not Walls, Ben Fisher, Ben Dunham, Lilli Lewis, and Robert Neustadt.