Tips about playing and singing from Paul Brown

Windows Media Real Audio Podcast

About Paul Brown

Paul Brown is not only one of today’s most sought after old time banjo players, he is a fine fiddler and singer. Paul started playing banjo at age ten, and spent years learning music from some of the last fiddle, banjo, and guitar players to emerge before the age of radio and recordings. He plays primarily old time tunes from northwest North Carolina, and central and southwest Virginia. Some of the songs came from his mother, who learned them in the 1920s and 1930s from older musicians near Bedford, Virginia. He studied banjo intensively with the late Tommy Jarrell of North Carolina. He’s played with a long list of outstanding old time groups including, the Bent Mountain Band, Benton Flippen, and the Smokey Valley Boys. Paul has produced numerous acclaimed recordings of traditional musicians. Today he plays with Terri McMurray and John Schwab in the Mostly Mountain Boys, and with the Toast String Stretchers in North Carolina. He’s performed and presented at traditional music camps and festivals since the 1970s. His day job? Paul is a newscaster at NPR’s Washington, DC headquarters.