Alison Brown - Out of the Blue - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2015 album from the acclaimed Grammy-winning musician/composer/producer/entrepreneur. With The Song of the Banjo, her first album since 2009, Alison Brown plants another flag in her journey of musical exploration. As one of today's finest progressive 5-string banjo players, the 2015 IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award/2014 United States Artist Fellowship recipient and Compass Records co-founder mixes seven masterful originals with six surprising covers of pop and rock classics from the '70s and '80s, boldly going where no banjo album has gone before. For their mission, Brown and her co-producer, husband, tag co-founder and bassist Garry West have assembled an equally unconventional all-star ensemble, including Indigo Girls' Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, Keb' Mo', Colin Hay, uke master Jake Shimabukuro, legendary studio drummer Steve Gadd, fiddler Stuart Duncan, Irish phenom guitarist John Doyle, bassist Todd Phillips, guitarist Jim Oblon, Dobro player Rob Ickes and pianists Will Barrow, Joe Davidian and John Jarvis. Combining stunning virtuosity and unerring taste, Brown, with her signature model Prucha banjo creates a roots rainbow of folk, jazz, pop, Celtic, classical, Latin and Americana. Dynamic, introspective and even romantic, The Song of the Banjo is an album for people who didn't know they liked the banjo. For banjo lovers, Alison Brown's 2015 CD rekindles that affair.

GRAMMY winner and Banjo Hall of Fame member Alison Brown is one of the world's foremost banjoists and composers as well as one of the instrument's greatest ambassadors. In her hands, the banjo is equally at home on the front porch or at symphony hall. Brown has built a career taking the banjo far beyond it's Appalachia roots, blending bluegrass and jazz influences into a unique sonic tapestry that has earned her praise from a variety of national tastemakers including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, and USA Today. She is a frequent collaborator with Steve Martin and Indigo Girls as well as the bandleader of the Alison Brown Quintet which is on a self-declared mission to bring the banjo to mainstream audiences. On her newest , ON BANJO, Brown explores all the corners of the instrument's potential on a set of predominantly original tunes. Joining Brown are Anat Cohen, Stuart Duncan, Sierra Hull, Sharon Isbin, Kronos Quartet and Steve Martin.

Fair Weather is Alison Brown's follw-up album to her 1998 Out of the Blue. Featuring a a thick roster of guest appearances by Darol Anger, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bela Fleck, Vince Gil, David Grier, Gene Libbea, Claire Lynch, Tim O'Brien, Mike Marshall, Todd Phillips and Tony Rice.