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 Rodney Brown is back into the mainstream of Canadian Singer
Songwriters. He was part of that first wave along with Stan Rogers,
Murray McLauchlan and Bruce Cockburn. Brown played all the major
Canadian festivals and toured the length of the country. He has a real
sense of place in his songwriting - he lives and writes about
Northwestern Ontario. And I love hearing Canadian place names in songs.
Especially good songs.... "
-Les Siemieniuk reviewing Into The Woods for CBC's DNTO and Canada's
national folk magazine Penguin Eggs.
This last decade has seen Rodney record three outstanding albums. His
latest effort North Land [2009] follows the success of the highly
acclaimed, Big Lonely CD and spans a thirty year career of songwriting,
performing and recording.
Over the years, Rodney has donned many musical persona's but these days
he writes mostly about his home on the North Shore of Lake Superior. His
songs paint evocative pictures from a unique time in Canadian history.
Combined with excellent musicianship and the skills of a veteran
performer Rodney has earned a dedicated and growing fan base.
Born in Fort William [Thunder Bay] on November 11th, 1954 Rodney
plucked his first guitar strings at the age of 7 and he hasn’t stopped
since. His teacher was his father, C&W singer Mel Brown. Rodney paid his
dues playing the bars, pubs, and coffeehouses of Northwestern Ontario
performing solo, with mandolinist Damon Dowbak and with several bands
including R&B Airways and Whiskey Jack. When the bands split, Rodney
continued on his solo career and in 1977, released his first album -
Freedom in Me. It was distributed across Canada, and was exported to
England and Japan. Promoting the record took him across the country,
playing the folk festival circuit. His song Somebody Give Me A Job was
heralded as the "National Anthem for the 1980's" by the Winnipeg Folk
Festival.
Performances on CBC's, Morningside, Touch the Earth, Simply Folk and
Country Roads followed and established performers like Daisy Debolt, Tom
Jackson, Heather Bishop and Kim Deschamps began to include his songs in
their repertoires. The CBC, TVO, Monitor North, and Kam Theater began to
commission songs from him.
Rodney toured to Newfoundland with Kam Theater’s production of HARVEST
and in 1980 released his second CD, When The Bay Turns Blue. By this
time Rodney was fronting his own band The Derailers who performed a
unique fusion of country, blues, folk and reggae music.
In the mid- eighties, after completing a project with First Nations
students in Mine Centre, he was drawn to the joys of working with
children and spent the next decade doing so. Although Rodney continued
to write and perform his own material, working with children and schools
meant a hiatus from touring and time to spend with his growing family.
It also meant releasing 2 highly successful children’s albums - Wishes,
Dreams & Giants(1989) and We Have a Song to Sing(1993). In 1998, Rodney
was back in the studio recording his seventh album, Merry Christmas To You.
Rodney's CD Into the Woods [2001] marked a return to the national folk
music circuit. While touring with the Northern Roots Band and Ian
Tamblyn Rodney began researching early stories of his hometown’s
namesake William McGillivray and The Big Lonely CD was born. His
historical songs about the Canadian fur trade have taken him across
Canada, the Upper American mid west and to the UK for Witney's, Journey
of a Blanket Project. His songs gained international recognition after a
performance for CBC’s, Vinyl Café with host Stuart McLean.
In 2008 Rodney performed his historical ballads with the Thunder Bay
Symphony Orchestra. The Big Lonely Show with the TBSO opened to standing
ovations and the beautifully orchestrated songs are destined to travel
across Canada and beyond.
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