Alison Brown

Alison Brown was born on the 7th of August, 1962, in Hartford, Connecticut. Despite being a songwriter, musician, guitarist, composer, and record producer, she is most known for her banjo-playing skills. She is often compared to Béla Fleck for her expertise with the banjo and has won and been nominated for several Grammys. Her music is recognized for her distinctive playing style, combining rock, jazz, blues, and other genres. She learned to play the guitar at the age of 8 and the banjo at age ten. Brown traveled across the country with Stuart Duncan, the fiddler, and his father, subsequently performing contests and festivals.

She landed a one-night gig at the Grand Ole Opry due to winning first place at the Canadian National Banjo Championship. Brown joined Harvard University in 1980 and studied history and literature. She then got an MBA from UCLA after graduating from Harvard. During her time at Harvard, she unified the Northern Lights band and was a member of it until 1984. She had been employed at Smith Barney in San Francisco for two years until she left to pursue her career in music. In 1987, Alison Krauss invited Brown to play for her band, “Union Station.”

After spending three years with the band, she left in 1990 to Tennessee. Alison's album "I've Got That Old Feeling," released in 1990, in which Brown had played the banjo, won a Grammy. It was during this time when she and her husband and bass player Garry West, started their record label called Small World Music, which later birthed Compass Records in 1995. Brown has a daughter, Hannah West, and a son, Brendan West, with Garry. In 2001, Brown won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance, collaborating with Béla Fleck for the song "Leaving Cottondale." She also had received a nomination for her own 1990 recording, "Simple Pleasures."