“Nora has a passion for the music of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee… with a thirst for storytelling.”— Bob Boilen, NPR All Songs Considered
Nora Brown was introduced to traditional music by chance as a six year old. What her parents assumed would be routine ukulele lessons were an inconspicuous window to the world of old-time music. From his tiny studio apartment in Brooklyn, the late Shlomo Pestcoe, a historian and old-time musician taught Nora old time tunes on the ukulele and through his continued instruction other traditional instruments– the fiddle, mandolin, guitar and banjo.
Nora now plays traditional Appalachian music with a focus on banjo playing from Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. Along with mentors in the northeast like the late John Cohen she also has traveled and learned directly from master musicians including Alice Gerrard, George Gibson and the late Lee Sexton.
She toured across the US, Europe, and Japan, playing renowned festivals including the Newport Folk Festival, Roskilde Festival, and the Trans-Pecos Festival of Love in Marfa, Texas. She has performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk twice, TED Salon, WNYC’s Dolly Parton’s America and an official showcase at the 2022 Americana Fest in Nashville.
Nora has been interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition, WBUR Here and Now and she’s been included on NPR’s All Songs Considered.
Since 2019 she has released four albums on Brooklyn’s own Jalopy Records Label. All records have charted on the Billboard Bluegrass Charts during the first week of release.
The New Yorker called her most recent record Long Time To Be Gone - “A disarming collection of traditional laments and exquisite banjo instrumentals”.
Fretboard Journal called her 2nd album Sidetrack My Engine - “Some of the most interesting and haunting Traditional music we’ve heard… impossibly talented”
She has won numerous banjo and folk song competitions at various fiddlers conventions including the Clifftop Appalachian String Band Music Festival and The Grayson County Old-Time and Bluegrass Fiddlers Convention.
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