Greg Brown

This is a site dedicated to fans of Greg Brown. This is not the official Greg Brown website or a way to contact Greg Brown, rather this is a myspace page made by and maintained by fans of Greg Brown.



The official website can be found at http://www.gregbrown.org. Anyone interested in further information regarding Greg Brown, or wanting to contact Greg Brown, is highly encouraged to check out the official website as it includes a complete discography, song lyrics, trivia, photos, interviews, and further information.



Enjoy the music above. If it's your first time hearing it and you like it, go and buy one of his albums through the official website. To me, each album has a unique sound that is remarkably different than the others which always makes his music a fitting selection for any mood.



Greg's Biography from Red House Records:



Greg Brown's mother played electric guitar, his grandfather played banjo, and his father was a Holy Roller preacher in the Hacklebarney section of Iowa, where the Gospel and music are a way of life. Brown's first professional singing job came at age 18 in New York City, running hootenannies (folksinger get-togethers) at the legendary Gerdes Folk City. After a year, Brown moved west to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where he was a ghostwriter for Buck Ram, founder of the Platters. Tired of the fast-paced life, Brown traveled with a band for a few years, and even quit playing for a while before he moved back to Iowa and began writing songs and playing in midwestern clubs and coffeehouses.



Brown's songwriting has been lauded by many, and his songs have been performed by Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana, Michael Johnson, Shawn Colvin, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. He has also recorded more than a dozen albums, including his 1986 release, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, when he put aside his own songwriting to set poems of William Blake to music. One Big Town, recorded in 1989, earned Brown three and a half stars in Rolling Stone, chart-topping status in AAA and The Gavin Report's Americana rankings and Brown's first Indie Award from NAIRD (National Association of Independent Record Distributors). The Poet Game, his 1994 CD, received another Indie award from NAIRD. His critically acclaimed 1996 release, Further In, was a finalist for the same award. Rolling Stone's four-star review of Further In called Brown "a wickedly sharp observer of the human condition." 1997's Slant 6 Mind (Red House Records) earned Brown his second Grammy nomination.



From Greg's Information Page at Red House Records:



Greg Brown was born in the Hacklebarney section of southeastern Iowa and raised by a family that made words and music a way of life. His seasoned songwriting, storytelling, and music are deeply rooted in that place. He moves audiences with warmth, humor, a thundering voice and his unpretentious musical vision.



His mother played the electric guitar, his grandfather played the banjo, his grandmother was a poet, and his father was a Pentecostal preacher. Greg's youth was spread across a map of the Midwest as they moved between churches (and even denominations), but music was always a staple. Gospel and hymns, classical, hillbilly, early rock and roll, country, and blues coalesced into a simmering stew of sound. Greg studied classical voice and piano as a child and also sang with choirs and in state competitions. At six he took up the pump organ and at twelve he learned the basics of guitar from his mother (who was also an English teacher-so books and poetry were always around the house).



At 18, Greg won a contest to play an opening set for singer Eric Andersen in Iowa City, who then encouraged him to head east. Moving to New York, Greg landed a job at Gerdes Folk City in the Village running hootenannies. Next he tried Portland, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, but after a few years he moved back to Iowa. He recorded a couple of albums on his own (44 & 66 and The Iowa Waltz), then began working on A Prairie Home Companion and touring nationally. Greg's music is an intricate mix. It's no wonder-he is an intricate mix of a person. Though a touring musician for over thirty years, he has never abandoned those things that move him deeply-family, home, poetry and the natural world. Music and words flow through him and he uses them to paint simple yet powerful images on a canvas of gospel, blues, country, rock and jazz. A firm believer in community and ecological responsibility, he often uses his music to support these causes-both directly (doing benefit concerts and through sales of benefit CD's) and indirectly (using his gift for words to point out environmental or social ills in his strong yet subtle voice).



** Background is of Laughing White Falls (River) - Alger County, Michigan