Career
During the 1980s, his reputation was established through frequent touring and recurring performances on A Prairie Home Companion. Subsequently, his work has been nominated for Grammy awards. He also founded his own record label, named Red House Records after a home in which he lived in Iowa. To date, over 200 recordings have been released on Red House by artists such as Pat Donohue, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky, John McCutcheon and many more.
He has recorded more than two dozen albums, including his 1986 release, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, when he put aside his own lyric writing 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 4-star review of Further In called Brown "a wickedly sharp observer of the human condition." 1997's Slant 6 Mind earned Brown his second Grammy nomination. In 1999, Red House re-released One Night, a 1983 live performance originally on Minneapolis' Coffeehouse Extemporé Records.
Brown has an established history for allowing his music to be used to raise funds and awareness for environmental and social causes. The Solid Heart CD and accompanying video were recorded in 1999 during a two-night benefit for In Harmony, an organization that supports foster children and their families. Solid Heart also features Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer and Kate MacKenzie. In 2001, Charlie Parr & Mikkel Beckmen and Jeff White & The Front contributed to Down in the Valley: Barn Aid Benefit Concert. In 2002, Going Driftless: An Artist’s Tribute to Greg Brown, with selections by a number of female singers including Ani DiFranco, Gillian Welch, and Shawn Colvin, as well as Brown's three daughters, saw proceeds from its sale go to benefit The Breast Cancer Fund. In 2005, a live benefit for Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve was recorded and released in 2007 as Yellow Dog on the EarthWorks Music label.
Known for his personal and intimate concerts, Brown's most revealing recordings are live. In addition to One Night and several of his benefit CDs, 1995's The Live One (recorded in Traverse City, Michigan), 2003's Live at the Black Sheep, In the Hills of California: Live from the Kate Wolf Music Festival 1997–2003 (released in 2004), and 2007's Live from the Big Top, recorded at the Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield, Wisconsin bring a glimpse of the power of Brown's live shows. In 2007, he was nominated for a Folk Alliance Award in the category of Contemporary Artist of the Year.
Brown's songwriting has been lauded by many, and his songs have been performed by Willie Nelson, Jack Johnson, Carlos Santana, Michael Johnson, Ani DiFranco, Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Iris DeMent and Joan Baez. Baez's album Dark Chords on a Big Guitar takes its name from a line in Brown's song "Rexroth's Daughter"; that song and "Sleeper" are covered on the album.
Read more about this topic: Greg Brown (folk Musician)
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