Greg Brown combines down home roots with a poet's sensibilities, his gruff, expressive voice filling his songs with gritty romanticism, sardonic humor, bluesy melodicism, and disarming honesty. Raised by an electric guitar-playing mother and a Holy Roller preacher in Hacklebarney, Iowa, Greg rambled throughout the US, running the hootenannies at New York's legendary Gerdes Folk City, working in bands in California and Nevada, and writing songs for r&b legend Buck Ram, before returning to his native state.

In the extraordinary songs he's recorded on over a dozen acclaimed albums, most recently the retrospective If I Had Known (Red House), Greg's lyrics reveal powerful images painted on a canvas of gospel, blues, country, rock, calypso, and jazz -- but they should really be heard live, when the humor, warmth, and insight of these songs are multiplied exponentially as Greg improvises on his lyrics, music, and stories, like a jazz man improvises on a melody. Greg also just released an album of traditional songs, Honey In The Lion's Head (Trailer): expect to hear a few unique interpretations of old favorites like "Old Smokey" and "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister" as well.

Greg's daughter, the hypnotic-voiced Pieta Brown, opens with her original country-folk tunes, accompanied by Midwest guitar ace Bo Ramsey.