The Homer Tribune :: Homer, Alaska

The Weekender ; What's happening in Homer this weekend?

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

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THIS WEEK'S HEADLINES

• Homer preps for swine flu

• Pebble’s progress necessarily slow

• A dozen candidates file for city, borough offices

• Mayor Carey warns of ‘brown-outs’

• FYI

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

• In a cave . . . in the rain

• Jewel Kilcher returns home

• test

SPORTS

• Voz Cougars dominate eight-man football field

• Homer turns out in pink to run for the cure

• Homer Halibut derby standings

FEATURE

• When pigs fly

• Ninilchik pair finds net mending a dying art

BUSINESS

YOUTH

• Youth get creative about climate change

Common man's musician is anything but ordinary

Folk master combines poetry and heritage of storytelling into visceral acoustic performance

By Katie Emerick
Homer Tribune

May 27, 2009

Photo provided

Greg Brown, considered by many to be a leading father of folk music, brings his storytelling and music to Homer on Saturday.

Greg Brown's ability to make epic the common man's existence is not through exaggeration, but by finding depth in everyday life.
Brown is a singer/songwriter, armed with a Gibson guitar and considered by many as a leading father of folk music. What he embodies, however, is something far more intuitive than the typical offering of strummed notes accompanying a story. Brown is a poet, and in many ways, a man of the past. He is fundamentally tied to independent America and the simple life that has largely fallen to the fast-paced society of the modern age.
Brown grew up on his family's homestead in southern Iowa, and spent time in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri where his father was from. His family was filled with natural storytellers, and plenty of musical talent. Brown's mother played electric guitar, his grandfather played banjo and his grandmother had a fondness for singing old Irish ballads.
"I played piano from the time I was six, and also played the old pump organ," Brown said. "I started the banjo and guitar when I was about 11. There was always something to play."
Storytelling came just as naturally to Brown.
"That was common in my family," he said, remembering tales that would be told of the last moments before development changed the face of much of small-town America.
"My grandparents' generation was the last one of small rural communities that lived a completely different life than anyone lives now," he explained. "I feel fortunate that I got to experience some of that in my life."
Brown said the impact of his childhood has manifested itself into much of his music.
"I think whatever you hear as a kid is pretty influential," he said. "All the music I loved as a kid – church music, Appalachian-style hill tunes, the string bands, old blues and gospel – all that went into my head."
Despite coming from a background that seemed to pave the way toward a folk career, Brown decided very early on that the music industry was not the life for him.
"I played until I was 22, and realized that I didn't like what I saw of show business," Brown said. "I didn't care for that life and what went with it, so I quit. I moved back to Iowa, got a job, got married, had a kid and figured I would have a weekend gig here and there."
In his late 20s, Brown began writing songs again, and soon found himself back to being a musician full-time. This time, however, it would be on his terms.
"I was lucky. I put out a record or two myself and got invited to do the Prairie Home Companion Show for a couple of years," he explained. "If I can make it as a professional musician, anyone can. I was terrible at self-promotion. I started my own record company, but I always kept it small and close to home."
With 28 albums out since his debut collaboration with Dick Pinney in 1974, Brown's work is a mastery of words. His trademark low voice has garnered him the informal title as, "the White Howlin' Wolf."
And while much of Brown's music may be classified as folk, he draws more from the roots of blues and jazz, listing J.B. Lenoir, Little Walter, Skip James and Muddy Waters among his favorite musicians.
Brown's lyrics, visionary and reminiscent of his love for the poetry of William Blake, is what distinguishes him in a world of singer/songwriters. How he uses them makes him a compelling and relatable artist.
"All music has a message. Maybe it's just, 'hey baby, lets dance' or maybe it's political," he said. "In my songs, I tell stories about people and how these larger things are imposing on people's lives."
So whether it's something as menial as an old pair of shoes, or as weighty as loss of community, Brown takes his muse to words and holds them personally.
"I think the power of music, if it comes from someplace where you need and long for it, holds the sense that you're being carried by something larger than yourself," Brown said.
With a number of Independent Folk awards and Grammy nominations, and touring companions that range from Bo Ramsey to Ani Difranco, Brown is an artist blessed with the ability to create music that is timeless. Drawing from his own rich heritage, he weaves tales together, binding them with a natural fluidity of poetic words and the beat of his guitar that is both hillbilly folk and old-town blues.

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