MICHAEL JEROME BROWNE

Michael Jerome Browne- Bio

Three-time Canadian Folk Music Award winner (Traditional Singer, 2015; Solo Artist, 2012 & 2008), Maple Blues Award Winner, Kerrville (Texas) New Folk Finalist, Four-time Juno Award Nominee in both the Roots/Traditional and Blues categories- MJB is a multi-instrumentalist, a songwriter, and a living encyclopedia of American Roots music.

"SLIDING DELTA" is the new album on Borealis Records, available in 2015. It is a tribute to his early influences, filled with his own personal interpretations of the rural blues of Mississippi John Hurt, Fred McDowell, Memphis Minnie, Skip James, Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and many others. Recorded live off the floor in three days, it features MJB on several 6- and 12-string guitars, 5-string banjo, mandolin and rack-harp.

“Michael Jerome Browne... magnifies the magnificence of 1920s and 1930s country blues numbers... A singer of clarity and character, he is as skilled on banjo and mandolin as he is on valuable old guitars.” (4 stars)

-Frank-John Hadley, Downbeat

“Haunting to uplifting, subtle to powerful”

-Jamie O’Meara, Montreal Gazette

“Arguably the finest acoustic blues artist in this country”

-Globe and Mail (Toronto), Jan. 23, 2015

The album also includes a duet with Eric Bibb recorded in Scotland while on tour.

"...one of the finest musicians who is well versed in so many interrelated genres... Any chance I get to hear Michael and then play with him is a chance I'll leap at."

-Eric Bibb, interview with Holger Petersen (Talking Music)

Whether he's gliding a slide across his national guitar, pulling his bow over the fiddle strings to play a lively Cajun waltz, or frailing away on his gourd banjo, Michael's passion and virtuosity always shine through. In the true tradition of folk music, his performances inspire us to see the interconnections between the many cultures and influences that gave birth to American Roots Music. Gospel, Blues, Old-Time, Country, Soul and Cajun, expect to hear all of this and more from a performer who's been called a street-smart archivist and an absolute treasure.

Born in South Bend, Indiana, Michael is the son of English professors whose love of music and poetry inspired them to take their nine year old son to the great jazz, blues and folk clubs in their adopted home of Montreal. By the age of fourteen, MJB was already a regular on the vibrant folk and coffee house scene adding banjo, fiddle, and mandolin to his masterful command of all variety of guitars and harmonica.

A musician's musician, when he isn't performing his own material he is in demand backing up and recording with artists such as: Eric Bibb, Jordan Officer, and Susie Arioli.