Doug Brown

Few people have had a more significant impact on me musically than Doug. We met in 1977 when we were 19, and began playing and performing together immediately—literally! His multi-instrumental skills (lead guitar, banjo, fiddle, piano) seemed a perfect compliment to my rhythm guitar, singing, songwriting and love of entertaining.

In short order we performed as a duo, in a country-rock band (The Rowdy Yates Band), an Irish folk quartet (O’Darby), as Minstrels For The Environment (touring the U.S. and Canada), collaborating on one full-scale musical (A Christmas Carol) and later others which he scored (Cinderella, The Travels Of Babar). We made a few recordings together (Lonnquist and Brown, A Christmas Carol); and Doug contributed mightily as an instrumentalist to many of my other recordings (In the Birchwood, Reasons, Cleveland’s Lunch, Slow Ride, In the Time Of Nick, and others).

Though it may seem small by comparison with our overall body of work, our greatest accomplishment together might be the single song we ever wrote jointly: “Weave.” Doug wrote the lovely lyrics about the seasons, but was unsatisfied with melodies he’d attempted to put to the lyric. He invited me to have a go at it, and he liked the result. I sing “Weave” as frequently as any other “adult” song in my repertoire, and I expect I always will.

Doug found it necessary to decrease his involvement with me musically over the years so that he could concentrate on developing his own “musical identity.” We haven’t performed together much in recent years. He’s released several recordings and performs in a number of eclectic ensembles. He’s an extraordinary talent, and you can find out what he’s up to at dougbrownmusic.com.

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