Greg Brown
"Your Town Now"

As far as I can tell, Greg Brown is America's undisputed Songwriter Laureate. His songs have a rare combination of depth of feeling, and quick intellect. He knows how to mix pathos and humor, and the fact that he is widely read and a scholar of William Blake, among others, doesn't ever interfere with the directness of his storytelling or his language. He is also prolific. Here's a song from Greg's current release, Over and Under, on the indie Trailer Records label, a release that's produced with a truly folkie feel on every track. In this one, Brown seems to relinquish his beloved American town to the encroching forces of mass culture, materialism, apathy, and corporate plundering:

From the mountains to the plains
All the towns are wrapped in chains
And the little laugh the law allows
- And it's your town now

But in the end, he challenges "you young ones" to take back "the small and local." No wonder he's touring with Ani DiFranco.

Locate it on this page at efolkmusic.com:
http://www.efolkmusic.com/ViewTracks.asp?Artist=Greg+Brown

more info on artist: http://gregbrown.com

Check out efolkmusic for other great free MP3 downloads - as well as for pay-per-song downloads and CDRs:
http://www.efolkmusic.com

For my full review of this great album and his other current release, Covenant, on Red House Records, go here:
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Hugh Blumenfeld, Editor
hugh@balladtree.com