Brown, Alison
Harvard educated musician and co-founder of Compass Records Group, Alison Brown is a proud third generation Irish American and a renowned banjo player.
Her great grandfather was born in Bangor, Co. Down in 1868, and Brown says she felt a connection with him and her Irish roots when her son was born with bright red hair.
Compass Records Group, based in Nashville, Tennessee, boasts the largest catalog of Irish music in the world across the Compass, Green Linnet and Mulligan imprints. Her passion for Irish music is unending.
“The hairs on my arms still stand up when I hear a band like Lunasa or Solas launch into a set of reels. And I’m tremendously proud to be able to claim a small part of that tradition as my own,” says the Vanderbilt University adjunct professor who has won, among many awards, a Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance in 2001.
Brown is married with two children, Hannah and Brendan.
“Ever since I was small I’ve harbored romantic notions about the auld sod and have been inspired by the fortitude of the Irish who suffered through the Famine and had the determination to leave behind everything they knew in search of a better life in America,” says Brown.
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