Well, what do you know? Here’s Alison Brown again in the Wednesday afternoon “instrumental when we have them” slot right here on Americana UK. Another tune taken from Brown’s latest release ‘On Banjo’, this time we find Alison Brown’s elegant banjo playing intertwined with the critically acclaimed multi-cultural chamber group Kronos Quartet. Proving – once more and with feeling – that there are no limits to the music we can expect from the banjo.
Is it high falutin? Well, maybe a little – but we know that you dear reader can cope with complex cross-genre music making. It’s got historical precedent on its side too as in the America of the 19th century its the banjo became the go-to instrument for demure, high-class young women. ‘Porches‘ harkens back to the classic banjo repertoire of the late 1800s and highlights the range of the banjo’s voice, alluding to both its past and its future. “Collaborating with Kronos Quartet to record ‘Porches’ came very naturally,” says Brown. “I first met David Harrington and the other members of Kronos at the FreshGrass Festival in North Adams. They were in the midst of recording ‘Long Time Passing’, a celebration of Pete Seeger’s music, and we were all staying at a boutique hotel called Porches. I knew Kronos had a very wide-eyed musical vision but, once I discovered their affinity for Pete Seeger, I asked if they would consider collaborating and, happily, they embraced the idea right away.”
