Greg Brown on the State of Folk

May 28, 2003

When a locality starts to divide over a heated issue, a sense of neighborhood and the things that the community stands for can get lost. The Northern Michigan Hospital nurses‘ strike has fractured the community of Petoskey, but a group of residents on both sides of the issue feel that the community must come first and it is time to start the healing process with a “Northern Michigan Nurses Appreciation Night.”
What better way to begin the healing process then a concert with the son of a preacher man? Renowned folk singer/songwriter Greg Brown will return to Northern Michigan for the first time in six years to perform at the Petoskey Middle School this Saturday, May 31. Robin Lee Berry will open a show that is being billed as a “humble attempt to soothe conflicting feelings.”
“One day this past winter EMT Dave Trautman raised his head and asked if there was a way to support all of our nurses, striking and non-striking. He proposed that we have a concert to show support for every NURSE in Northern Michigan,” said Berry. “The realization is that every nurse involved has had to make very difficult decisions about their careers and their community. As the strike continues, the tension in the area is growing and often it is pitting neighbor against neighbor, and so a discussion took place one day about the sense of community and this concert was born.”
Berry and other organizers see the concert as a way, even if for just a moment, to shift the focus away from the strike and re-focus on the community.
“All the proceeds from the concert will go to Just For Us, a grassroots breast cancer support group in Petoskey founded 15 years ago to assist and support victims of breast cancer as well as their families,“ she says. “It is run by women who have been through the experience. These women have been funding this program out of their own pockets over the years so this will give a much needed financial boost to them. Our local Habitat for Humanity will also receive funds.”
The choice of Greg Brown as the headliner was instant.
“Greg Brown was immediately suggested as he is a singer-songwriter who has been admired and deeply missed by the music lovers of northern Michigan,” said Berry. “The fact that Greg’s label released ‘Going Driftless: An Artist Tribute to Greg Brown,’ in which several wonderful female folk singers including Ani DiFranco, Iris Dement, Lucinda Williams, Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter performed Greg’s songs with all the proceeds from the CD going to breast cancer research. So Greg was a natural and we are grateful that he has agreed to this performance. He is waiving his standard fee and we only have to cover expenses.”
Berry, who modestly left her name off the list, also sang on the tribute CD and is a nationally respected singer/songwriter in her own right.

FISHING AROUND
Brown also welcomes the opportunity to return to the area.
“I miss playing the area,“ he said in a phone interview. “I use to do this so called fishing tour where I would start in Wisconsin in June and make my way through the U.P. and into Northern Michigan. I would play Traverse City and Suttons Bay and then wet my line on the Boardman River. I love that river; it is a very pretty river.”
Brown, an avid fly-fisherman, will also perform at the Interlochen Summer Arts Festival July 23 and hopes to do a little fishing in the area.
“When I play Petoskey I am staying an extra day to wet my line,” said Brown. I hope to arrive at Interlochen a few days early and catch the tail end of the Hex hatch as well.”
While Brown is always up for fishing, he realizes that his work in Petoskey is serious.
“What I am hoping for is that this concert will be the start of the healing process for the people of the area,“ he said. “I do something similar to this in Red Lodge, Montana, where there are a lot of factions in this small community which is divided between pro-development and pro-conservationist groups. So every year they get the community together from all sides of the issues for a concert to remind everyone they are a part of the community and to prevent the community from becoming polarized. So when Robin Lee Berry called and explained what was happening in Petoskey I was glad to try and help.”
Brown values the sense of community and in his 30 plus years as a performer, singer and songwriter he was written, sung and spoke about the sense of community.
“I don’t think of community as being a romantic notion,” said Brown. “I think it’s as vital as air and water, so I write a lot about what makes and breaks a community. It could be a song about a slow death of a family farm or a small town.”

OUTLOOK ON LOVE
Critics affirm Brown’s uncanny knack of observing the human condition and effectively converting those observations to lyrics. His recent release “Milk of the Moon,” (his 16 album with Red House Records, a company he help to start 20 years ago) focuses on one of Brown’s favorite topics: love.
Brown might have a new outlook on love as last November he wed folk singer Iris Dement. Word of their wedding spread quickly through the folk music community and visions of romantic musical collaborations came to mind. Despite what seems to be a natural musical combination, Brown has said that the two will keep their professional lives separate and won’t be touring or collaborating together.
If he won’t be collaborating musically with his wife what is in store for Brown‘s music?
“I just finished a CD of traditional folk songs and that should be out later in the summer or early fall,” said Brown. “I guess the only other thing I would like to do professionally is write the music for a movie that I like. I have never written music for a film so that is what I would like to do.”
Does Brown see that a possibility in the near future?
“Writing is a funny thing, you really don’t know where it is going to lead, said Brown. “I just follow it and see where it leads.”

UPS & DOWNS
For Brown, 53, following his writing has meant a career of ups and downs. In the late ‘70s he threw in the towel and took a series of blue-collar jobs, including truck driving, and even working in a meat packing plant, where he cut off the tip of his thumb. Fortunately for his fans (Brown has reached cult status in the folk community) he returned to making music, but soon found himself frustrated and was ready to quit again when Minnesota Public Radio called and offered him a regular spot on “A Prairie Home Companion.”
From 1983-‘86 he performed weekly on the program and has been a regular ever since. Program listeners such as Willie Nelson and Carlos Santana began calling, asking Brown if they could record “They All Went To Mexico,” a song Brown wrote about being abandoned by his girlfriend, his buddy and his dog.
Brown has enjoyed a lot of success with Red House Records, the independent label he started in the early ‘80s with Bob Feldman (Feldman owns the label outright today). His 16 releases with Red House have collectively sold over a million copies -- not a lot by pop industry label standards but impressive from an independent folk perspective.
“This folk music scene has always been tucked away from the spotlight, not something the major labels are attracted to,” said Brown.
His folk icon status must have attracted some major label status?
“A little bit, but nothing serious,” said Brown. “I don’t think these label people hear my songs and think, ‘well this is a way to make a bunch of money,’ but I have done well and have been supported by community radio. It has amazing how many little community radio stations are still out there.”

TAKING A STAND
His work has brought him a host of awards and two Grammy nominations. Despite those nominations, Brown refused to go to the ceremonies.
“It’s impossible for me to think of music as a contest,” said Brown. “I am sure they are fun but these award ceremonies have no meaning to me.”
While Brown could work to full houses nightly, he chooses to do about 70 shows a year.
“This life as a musician can be hard to balance, and for that matter, any life can get out of balance,” said Brown. “It is a lot easier for me now. I don’t tour like I use to. I spend a lot more time around the house.”
Spending time around the house means helping his contractor Dean put the finishing touches on a home that Brown has been building in southeast Iowa on the property of his maternal grandparents. It also means a lot of reading and writing and thinking about the world we live in.
“I have been pretty appalled by some of things within the Bush Administration. I just don’t think our country is headed in the right direction, ” said Brown. “The way I responded myself in terms of my music was to write some songs in which I spoke to the war the best that I could. I have played and continue to play those songs at my shows.”
Brown thinks it is important for everyone to take a stand, not just musicians.
“I feel that everyone needs to speak out,” said Brown. “Either through music or whether its just standing together with others on the street corner and saying that I think the country is going in the wrong direction or to stand on the corner and say our country is going down the right road.”

FOLK‘S FUTURE
“I think the current administration has made it difficult for people to speak up, to object to this war and the corporate direction our country has taken,” Brown added. “To me this inability to be able to speak your mind and to disagree with the administration is just anti-American, at least the way I see how the country was founded. So I think this approach by the administration to demonize those that oppose their policies is heading our country down the wrong path.”
What about the direction of folk music that Brown has played a pivotal role in shaping, essentially taking the torch from Dylan and carrying the music into the 21st century? Does Brown have anyone to pass it off too?
“If asked that question a few years ago I would have said I was concerned,” said Brown. The whole folk scene was becoming stale and old -- it needs to keep moving, and it needs young blood to keep it fresh.”
Brown has since changed his perspective on the current status of folk music.
“I recently spoke to Bob Feldman about this and we are both seeing a lot of young people out there,” said Brown. “So I would say that it is very healthy right now. There are a lot of venues supporting the scene and a lot of young blood is out there. Ani DiFranco certainly has played a role in this, but also some of these kids in their younger 20s are really taking to the music and breathing new life into it. Garnet Rogers was telling about this young Rachel Davis from Cadillac, Michigan and how good she is.”


BOOSTING COMMUNITY
Greg Brown comes to Petoskey with a mission to start the healing process, he comes with a message that a sense of community is as important as the “air we breathe and the water we drink.” He also serves as a reminder that folk music is alive and vibrant and, that while he is lighting the candle of many 20-something folk musicians, he isn’t quite ready to pass off the torch yet.
Northern Michigan music fans are in for a double Greg Brown treat. May 31 Brown will perform at the Petoskey Middle School. Show time is 7 pm with doors opening at 6 p.m. for general admission seating. Advance tickets are recommended and are available at Record World and the Grain Train in Petoskey and New Moon Records in Traverse City. Tickets are $18 and $3 off for nurses that show their nursing card. Checks or cash are required for purchase. For additional concert or ticket information contact Robin Lee Berry at her website www.robinleeberry.com or by phone at (231) 582-5057. Greg Brown will return to northern Michigan July 23 to perform at Interlochen. For additional information visit www.interlochen.org or phone the box office (231) 276-7800.

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