Simple Pleasures

Pioneering banjo player, composer, and a key leading lady of bluegrass, Alison Brown wears many hats of leadership. She grew into these roles over time, but even back in 1990, with her debut album, Simple Pleasures, she showed an uncommon level of artistry and direction. Long out of print, her fiery debut of instrumental compositions and improvisations is being remixed, remastered, and reissued August 9 by Compass Records, the label that Brown co-founded in 1995. Produced by David Grisman, the album featured bluegrass all-stars like Alison Krauss, Mike Marshall, and Joe Craven, and garnered Brown a Grammy nomination and Banjo Player of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association, the first win for a woman. Looking back at the album 34 years later, it’s remarkable how fresh and alive it feels. Brown breathes fire on the banjo on 'Leaving Cottondale' and 'Sundaze', but it’s on the more adventurous compositions that her vision shines, from delicate classical tinges on 'Weetabix' to the tropicália of 'Mambo Banjo' or the parlor banjo tones of 'Waltzing with Tula'. Some of the key compositions on this album would pop up in Brown’s next 12 records, so it’s great to hear them in an elemental state of creation here. This reissue also includes previously unreleased demos of three tunes, showing the process of creation.