Grammy award-winning artist Alison Brown and her Quartet to perform

By Erin Semple
Staff Writer

Grammy award-winning artist Alison Brown and her Quartet will perform on Friday, March 1 at 8 p.m. in Georgia College & State University’s Russell Auditorium.
“I think it is extremely exciting that we will have a Grammy award-winning artist performing here in Milledgeville,” said Tara Butcher, public relations coordinator of Allied Arts.
“I am excited to see the cutting edge new grass, that’s what she calls her music,” said Brian Renko, program coordinator of Allied Arts.
According to Butcher, Alison Brown has taken a unique path to establish herself as an internationally recognized banjo player. Brown was an investment banker; she has a BA from Harvard and a MBA in finance from UCLA. She toured with Alison Krauss and Michelle Shocked before forming the Alison Brown Quartet in 1993.
“She picked up the banjo early on, and she was inspired. The first person she ever saw play a banjo was a female. That was an inspiration to her,” said Butcher.
According to Butcher, the Quartet includes John R. Burr, who plays piano, Garry West on bass and Kendrick Freeman on drums.
Brown enlarges the banjo’s musical possibilities by weaving elements of bluegrass, jazz and Latin music into an entertaining program that the Hollywood Reporter calls “an ear opening pleasure!”
“It’s not in traditional style. It is experimental style, not traditional bluegrass music, but it does have undertones and overtones of blue grass,” said Renko.
According to Butcher, Brown won a Grammy Award last February for “Best Country Instrumental” for her song “Leaving Cottondale.”
This song can be found on her Grammy-nominated album “Fair Weather.” Brown also received an earlier Grammy nomination for her first solo record, “Simple Pleasures.” As a member of Alison Krauss’ Union Station, they won a Grammy award for their “I’ve Got That Old Feeling” album.
Butcher states that Brown is the only female recipient of bluegrass music’s highest accolade for an instrumentalist: the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Banjo Player of the Year Award in 1991.
“She is the best of the female banjo players,” said Butcher.
“It’s wonderful. It speaks volumes about her talent,” said Renko.
According to Butcher, Alison Brown has appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” and in The Wall Street Journal.
Butcher states that Brown and bass player Garry West are also founders of Compass Records, one of the nation’s leading independent labels, and have been guest lecturers at several universities including the Harvard Business School.
This performance is co-sponsored by the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Allied Arts and the Georgia College & State University Arts Unlimited Committee with additional support from the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The Council is a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tickets for the performance are $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens and students age 10 and over, and $6 for students under the age of 10.
GC&SU students are admitted free with their valid university I.D. General admission tickets are on sale now at the John Marlor Arts Center; tickets will also be available at the door.
For more information, contact Allied Arts at 478-452-3950.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 22 2002. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry