GREG BROWN

Born: Ottumwa, Iowa, 2 July 1949

Genre: Folk

Best-selling album since 1990: Covenant (2000)

Folksinger Greg Brown is not only precious to his home state of Iowa, but he qualifies as a national treasure as well. Since the 1970s, the singer/songwriter has given the impression that he is a drifting musical Johnny Appleseed, haphazardly tossing out the seeds of his earthy, wisdom-filled songs. In actuality, Brown is one of the hardest workers in music—an artist whose impressive canon of songs and compelling voice allow him to forge a living in the financially frustrating world of folk music.

Brown was born in rural southeastern Iowa (local Iowans refer to the region as the "Hacklebarney" section of the state) into a musically inclined family with roots back to Appalachia. His father was a traveling Pentecostal preacher and Brown sojourned America's heartland with his father, who conducted Bible studies in various churches throughout Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. After high school, Brown took off to New York City where he immediately found work hosting open-mic nights at Gerdes Folk City in Greenwich Village. In the 1970s he eventually returned to Iowa, which has been his home base ever since. Brown caught a break when radio host Garrison Keillor asked him to be part of his Prairie Home Companion radio broadcast. The regular exposure on National Public Radio increased his fan base and allowed Brown to form his own record company, Red House Records. This began a long string of critically acclaimed albums that positioned Brown as an extremely popular artist in regional pockets of the United States, although overall he sits only on the fringe of the mainstream.

One of Brown's most distinctive characteristics is his voice, which floats expressively out of him in a deep, low rumble. Playing an acoustic guitar for accompaniment, he sings his bluesy folk material in an uncomplicated style that communicates his overall unpretentiousness. Brown's songs are poetic tales ripe with irony, and contain detailed imagery often reflective of his rural Iowa upbringing. Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana, Shawn Colvin, and Mary Chapin Carpenter number among those artists who have performed his songs.

In the 1990s his album sales began increasing progressively as an aggressive concert schedule—Brown played 100 to 150 gigs per year throughout the 1990s—added to his popularity. Slant 6 Mind (1997) sold nearly 60,000 copies and Covenant (2000) has fared even better. Both albums contain Brown's raw, pleasing mix of blues and folk ballads. He also shows a strong country influence as heard on Down in There (1990), which features a bluegrass-styled tribute to the locale of his youth in "Hacklebarney Time."

His career has gone well enough for him to purchase 200 acres of land once owned by his grandparents in that same area of southern Iowa.

In 2002 a tribute album honoring Brown's music, Going Driftless (2002), was released. It contains renderings of fourteen songs by sixteen different female performers, including his three daughters, who perform "Ella Mae," which Brown wrote in honor of his grandmother. Other performers include Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Ani DiFranco, and Iris Dement. All proceeds from Going Driftless go toward the Breast Cancer Fund.

The new millennium saw Brown scale down his feverish concert schedule as his well-deserved upswing of success allowed him to rest and take stock of his career. Among his many ambitions is to get more involved in writing for independent films. Brown remains one of the most important artists in contemporary folk music.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Iowa Waltz (Red House, 1983); 44 and 66 (Red House, 1984); In the Dark with You (Red House, 1985); Songs of Innocence and of Experience (Red House, 1986); One More Good-night Kiss (Red House, 1988); One Big Town (Red House, 1989); Down in There (Red House, 1990); Bathtub Blues (Red House, 1993); The Poet Game (Red House, 1995); The Live One (Red House, 1995); Further In (Red House, 1996); Slant 6 Mind (Red House, 1997); Over and Under (Trailer 20, 2000); Covenant (Red House, 2000); Milk on the Moon (Red House, 2002).

donald lowe