Banjo Brown

Following in his father's footsteps of defending our country in the U.S. Navy, Brown enlisted, and made a career as an officer, with 27 years as a Farsi linguist, retiring as an intel officer. While on a deployment to Africa, he began playing guitar, and later played with his own son, Caleb, the accomplished mandolin artist. Currently, he performs solo, and fronts a band called The Road Gators. He says that he has goals to write and record music, but he's not aggressively pursuing it at this time. 

Folks wonder, "What's with the name?" since there is no banjo in evidence at shows. It's a throwback to a commanding officer, who observed his gifted presentation, but said that the spoken delivery was reflective of his southern rearing; (think Dueling Banjos). The nickname stuck. Brown finds inspiration in the country-rock sound of the 70's in California, Jackson Browne, the Doobie Brothers, and America. Influential singer-songwriters include Townes Van Zandt, Gillian Welch, John Prine, Taylor Kingman, Blaze Foley, and Guy Clark. He says that, while not a fan of poetry, if you put it to music, it becomes magical.