Here’s a story you don’t hear every day: a successful investment banker raised by lawyers, changes careers for a life in music. But that’s Alison Brown’s story. She is like a roots music sommelier, who has navigated the path from playing Bluegrass music during high school to building Compass records with her husband Gary, and now introducing an online video series of banjo lessons.
The On Banjo lesson series is for those who are either fascinated by, or curious about how to play banjo. On Banjo is a subscription-based service with content which ranges from beginner to advanced players who are adding technical skills. One hint that Alison Brown is an overachiever: there are more than 150 lessons available within the series.
I spoke at length with Brown about her path and how she became a part of roots music community. She discovered the San Diego Bluegrass club when she was 12 years old, then played all through her high school years. Ultimately, she took a job as an investment banker working in San Francisco. There her area was public finance, a kind of work which is extremely quantitative. Brown works equally well with both her right and left brain. Although she has tremendous talent on banjo, she also comfortably navigates the keys of her HP 12C finance calculator.
After some time, Brown took a hiatus to write music. During that time, Alison Krauss invited Brown to play banjo with her band. Brown seized the opportunity, climbed into the van on tour and never went back to investment banking. Her time with Krauss opened the ability to experience Bluegrass music where it originated, in the south.
Three years in, Brown worked with David Grisman who produced her first record Simple Pleasures. Grisman is an International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inductee, a mandolin player known for his acoustic style which combines bluegrass, folk and jazz, known as “Dawg music.”
Soon after, Brown left Alison Krauss’ band. Her parents, as parents do, suggested law school. Brown was considering that path when singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked called. looking for a band leader. Brown took the gig and avoided law school for good.
Brown believes she’s now connected with a broader platform where she can play and give back, create a body of music which has resonance in the future. She said “It’s what we live to do. You get paid for all the travel and everything else, but the actual joy of making music, that’s the essence of it all.”
She’s connected with a broader platform where she can play and give back, creating a body of music which has resonance in the future. Over the years she has released a steady stream of albums, listed below:
Because Brown is tireless and well trained in both music and finance, it was perhaps inevitable she would someday create a record label. She did, with her husband Garry West, himself a bass player. They made an early deal to provide North American distribution for an Australian label which had 1,000 items in their catalogue. This year will be the 30th anniversary of Compass Records which they founded to form a financially solid home for bluegrass records. Compass remains a vital force in distributing roots and Celtic music.
Like in many interesting stories, Compass records’ studio has a history. They are in Nashville, TN on Music Row. Their specific studio used to be the home of Glaser Brother Productions. Here, in what was once called Hillbilly Central was where Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and others brought out the style which became known as “Outlaw” country music.
There is no limit to the success which can come from straying off the sidewalk and into the wild. Brown has a tremendous gift of talent, and the poise which comes from being surrounded by lawyers since birth. Her blend of financial sophistication, and the ease of her ability to communicate opens doors in business at the same time her performance skills continue to offer opportunities for Brown to broaden her community of fans. Watch and listen. You’ll feel the warmth of roots music lift your spirits and lighten your load.