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With her languid delivery, ethereal style, and versatile voice, singer/songwriter
Pieta Brown has built an impressive career both in the studio and on-stage. After releasing her self-titled debut in 2002, her introspective third long-player, 2007's
Remember the Sun, was met with significant critical acclaim. A perennial collaborator, her 2014 album,
Paradise Outlaw, featured
Justin Vernon and
Amos Lee, among others, while 2017's
Postcards showcased a different guest on each track, among them
Mark Knopfler,
Calexico, and
the Pines.
The daughter of Grammy-nominated folk musician
Greg Brown,
Pieta Brown is a native of Iowa City. She spent her formative years splitting time between her mother's house in Alabama and her father's back in Iowa. Although music was a key component of her youth,
Brown's songwriting career didn't begin in earnest until she was in her mid-twenties. The songs that would soon comprise her debut album were written in a small shed in her father's backyard and first issued on a homemade cassette. Her debut was co-produced with
Bo Ramsey, a longtime collaborator of her father's who had also served as a producer and guitarist for
Lucinda Williams on
Essence. Helping out on the effort was the rhythm section of Rick Cicalo and Steve Hayes,
Brown's sister Constie, her father
Greg Brown, veteran folkie
Dave Moore, and
Don Heffington. The eponymous album arrived on Iowa independent label Trailer Park Records in June 2002.
In 2005, she recorded In the Cool with
Ramsey (whom she would later marry) once again in the co-producer's seat. The album reached far and wide and received airplay on Americana radio.
Brown briefly signed to
One Little Indian, where she recorded and released the acclaimed
Remember the Sun in 2007.
Two years later,
Brown joined the roster of venerable folk label Red House, longtime home to her father's recordings.
One and All, her debut for the label, appeared in 2010, followed quickly by 2011's Mercury. Both were well-received not only by listeners but also by musicians: she opened gigs for everyone from
Mark Knopfler and
Mavis Staples to
J.J. Cale,
Ani DiFranco, and
Calexico, and made vocal appearances on two of the latter's albums,
Algiers and
Carried to Dust. In 2012,
Brown guested on
Amos Lee's
Mission Bell. She resumed recording in early 2014 with
Ramsey and a slew of guests including her father,
Lee, and
David Mansfield. They cut
Paradise Outlaw at
Justin Vernon's April Base studio in Wisconsin (he also appears on the recording). Her final release for Red House, it was issued in late September. Moving to Lustre Records, she delivered the EP Drifters before releasing her sixth album, 2017's
Postcards. It featured a collaboration with a different artist on each song, and included appearances from
Knopfler,
Mason Jennings, and
Carrie Rodriguez.
Brown then signed with
Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records for Freeway, which saw release in 2019. Produced with solo artist and
Bon Iver drummer
S. Carey, it boasted the backing band of
Carey, bassist
Mike Lewis (
Bon Iver), and guitarist
Jeremy Ylvisaker (
Andrew Bird). ~ Erik Hage & Thom Jurek