By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
Alison Brown
Alison Brown’s parents were hoping she would be a doctor – a vocation that many parents wish for their children.
In 1980, Brown went to Harvard University, where she studied history and literature. After graduating from Harvard, she earned an MBA from UCLA.
Well, she didn’t become an M.D. but she was a Harvard grad and that’s enough to make any parent proud.
But music was always lurking in the background.
Brown followed an unconventional path to international recognition.
After college, she began a career in investment banking, but the bluegrass of her Southern California upbringing kept calling.
In 1982, while still at Harvard, Brown helped to reunite the Northern Lights band. After a five-year hiatus, she became a band member until 1984, when she moved back to California. Brown worked for two years with Smith Barney in San Francisco, and then took a break to pursue her music interests.
Her career path took her from being an investment banker to being an accomplished banjo player.
When Alison Krauss sought a banjo player, Brown left Wall Street, touring with Krauss, Union Station, and Michelle Shocked before forming The Alison Brown Quartet in 1993.
In 2001, in collaboration with Béla Fleck, Brown won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for her song “Leaving Cottondale” from her album, “Fair Weather.”
She participated in Alison Krauss’ Grammy-winning album “I’ve Got That Old Feeling,” and received a Grammy nomination for her own recording, “Simple Pleasures” in 1990.
Last fall, she released a duet album with actor/comedian/banjoist Steve Martin called “Safe Sensible and Sane,” and released the music video for their track “New Cluck Old Hen.”
The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart and currently Brown and Martin have the #1 song on the bluegrass radio chart. In support of the new release, they appeared on The Tonight Show, The View, The Late Show, and Nightline.
A Grammy Award, working with Steve Martin, performing on the Tonight Show were just a few of the things that made Brown’s parents O.K. with the fact that she didn’t become a doctor.
“My parents were a little disappointed that I became a musician,” said Brown, during a phone interview Wednesday as she awaited her flight at Nashville International Airport.
“After a while, they changed their minds and became happy with what I had accomplished.”
Brown, who is in the Banjo Hall of Fame, was flying to Philadelphia to start a two-week tour of the Northeast – a tour which brings her to the Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, www.st94.com) on April 23.
“I’m always touring,” said Brown, the 2025 recipient of the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum honor recognizing outstanding women in the music industry. “It’s the Nashville way.”
Joining her will be the long-time members of her touring quintet: John Ragusa (flute), Jody Nardone (piano), Garry West (bass) and Bryan Brock (drums).
“We’ll be playing songs from my most recent record, songs from my catalog and songs from the record I put out with Steve Martin last year.
“I knew Steve for 20 years. I used to play shows with him and Martin Short. I also co‑chair the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, which has given over half a million dollars to the banjo community.”
Brown collaborated with Martin on the banjo‑driven album “Safe, Sensible and Sane,” featuring guest artists such as Jackson Browne, Vince Gill, Indigo Girls, and Jason Mraz.
“We recorded most of the album at Compass Sound Studio. It’s a legendary studio known as the first studio for recording outlaw county – Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson. Kinky Friedman.”
Brown is co‑founder of Compass Records Group, praised by Billboard as “one of the greatest independent labels of the last decade,” overseeing nearly 1,000 releases.
In the early 1990s, Brown and her husband, bass player Garry West, started their own record label, Small World Music. This company eventually led to the launch of Compass Records in 1995, an internationally recognized label, which has such artists as Victor Wooten, Colin Hay, A.J. Croce, Glen Phillips, Robbie Fulks, Bobby Osborne, Altan, Darol Anger, Elizabeth & the Catapult and others.
In 2006, The Compass Records Group acquired the rights to the Green Linnet catalog and the next year acquired the seminal Dublin-based Irish music label Mulligan records. These two acquisitions made Compass Records Group the leading label for Irish and Celtic music. In 2017, Compass acquired Red House Records, the St. Paul, MN based folk and Americana label started by Bob Feldman in 1983, bring artists including Greg Brown, The Wailin’ Jennys, John Gorka, Chastity Brown and Davina and the Vagabonds to the Compass Records Group. Since that time, Red House has added Steve Poltz, The Small Glories, The Whitmore Sisters and Kate Taylor to the roster.
Compass Records’ offices and studio are located on Music Row (916 19th Avenue South) in the former home of Glaser Brothers Productions (a.k.a. “Hillbilly Central”) where the likes of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman and Tompall Glaser gave rise to country music’s “Outlaw” movement
A New York writer dubbed the place “Hillbilly Central” in 1974 because the aforementioned figureheads of Nashville’s outlaw crowd were likely to be found here at one time or another.
“Working with Steve was great,” said Brown, who has released 12 acclaimed solo albums, earned a GRAMMY and multiple nominations, and received honors including the USA Artists Fellowship in Music and the IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award.
“He’s one of the two most famous banjo players in the world – Steve and Kermit the Frog. He’s continually creating – very creative.
“A lot of the songs on the record came together really fast. Steve has a real positive spirit. He brings so much excitement and joy to the process.”
Brown has not been very prolific with her solo album output.
“On Banjo,” her most recent release, came out on Compass Records in 2023.
Before that, it was “Song of the Banjo” on Compass Records in 2015 and “The Company You Keep” on Compass Records in 2010.
“I was just in the studio last week,” said Brown. “I’ve got 12 albums under my belt, and it seems like it’s time to make another one.”
Video link for Alison Brown – https://youtu.be/alnKMkukfYE.
The show at the Sellersville Theater on April 23 will start at 8 p.m.
Ticket prices start at $35.
On April 23 at the Elkton Music Hall (107 North Street, Elkton, Maryland, www.elktonmusichall.com), Yarn will have a record release show for their new album, “Saturday Night Sermon.”The album officially drops on April 24 through 333 Entertainment and finds the Carolina-based rockers leaning into classic country, with dynamic arrangements that feature horn sections and a gospel choir.
Yarn, a North Carolina-based Americana band, had its start in New York City before moving south.
The band — Blake Christiana, Vocals, Guitar; Andy Thomas, Vocals, Guitar; Rick Bugel, Bass; Robert Bonhomme, Drums –also found a “home away from home” in Kennett Square. They performed many times over the last decade at Kennett Flash. Now, they’re heading a little southwest to a venue in Maryland.
Yarn started as a band in 2006 playing a blend of country, bluegrass, country blues and rock. It was music from the hills — made on the crowded avenues of Brooklyn.
“Yarn happened real naturally,” said Christiana, during a phone interview Tuesday morning from his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I had another band at the time — Blake and the Family Dog.
“I began writing country bluegrass tunes which I didn’t feel were right for the band. We had jams at a club in Greenwich Village called Kenny’s Castaway. Eventually, the guys who kept coming back every week ended up being the guys in the band.
“We would go out on the road, but we had a Monday night residency there for two years whenever we were in town. Now, 20 years later, we’re still doing it.
“For our 20th anniversary, we’re having an anniversary release of our first album – on vinyl. Our first self-titled album came out when vinyl was dying and everything was a CD.’
The band released “Yarn” in 2006. Five studio albums followed — “Yarn” (2007), “Empty Pockets” (2008), “Come On In” (2010), “Almost Home” (2012) and “Shine the Light On” (2013).
The band then took to the road, playing more than 170 shows a year and sharing stages with such superstars as Charlie Daniels, Marty Stuart, Allison Krauss, Leon Russell, and The Lumineers.
Since then, they have released “This Is the Year” (2016), “Lucky 13, Vol. 1” (2019), “Lucky 13, Vol. 2” (2019), “Born Blessed Grateful & Alive” (2024) and “Live Yarn Vol. 1” (2024).
“Everything we’ve done has never been contrived,” said Christiana.
Since forming in New York City nearly 20 years ago, Yarn has charted repeatedly on the Americana Music Association album and singles charts, climbed as high as number 4, and been featured heavily on Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country, including their single Traveling Kind.
According to Christiana, “The band has found something really special over the past couple of years. It feels like we are finally the live band and album-producing band we always set out to be.”
“Saturday Night Sermon” opens with its title track, a soaring, guitar-and choir-filled introduction that sets a positive, uplifting tone for the journey ahead.
From the singalong encouragement of “Let the Universe” to the heartfelt ballad “Where We Land,” the collection navigates gratitude, love, and the human condition, culminating in the reflective, comforting “A Welcome New Home.”
Rock-tinged tracks like “Longshot,” “Might As Well Be King” and “Never Enough” add edge and contrast.
“When we go in the studio, we’re working and it’s fun,” said Christian. “We recorded the album in Boonton Township, New Jersey at a studio called The Pine Box.
“We made our last two studio albums there. Everyone is in the same room when we’re recording and we track almost everything live.
“Our drummer is Robert Bonhomme and our bass player is Rick Bugel. This rhythm section is Yarn. Andy Thomas, who joined the band three years ago, is the best guitarist I ever played with.
“I’m always trying to write songs that bring joy and happiness. It shows in the music. I just want it to be a celebration of life — something to get people to think more positively.”
Video link for Yarn – https://youtu.be/aSkqDMAMpUI.
The show at Elkton Music Hall on April 23, which has Scott Matthews as the opening act, will start at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $26.
