Alison Brown The Song of the Banjo *

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, label 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.