By Nancy Cardwell
In articles published during the past few months in honor of IBMA’s 25th anniversary, we’ve examined the goals we’ve accomplished as a bluegrass music trade association and a music community. Through the end of the year we’ll chat with a dozen industry leaders about what the future may hold—for IBMA, as well as for the music itself. We hope you’ll add your thoughts on our membership listserv, IBMA-L or on our Facebook page. Thanks for joining the team to support bluegrass music through your membership in IBMA, and we hope to continue working with you for the next 25 years!
Alison Brown has achieved success in many areas: a Harvard graduate, record label co-founder and owner, mother, and the role most people know her in: banjo virtuoso. Brown first came to national prominence when she was asked by Alison Krauss to join her band, Union Station in 1989. Prior to that, she performed extensively with fiddler Stuart Duncan and occasionally with artists in the West like Vince Gill, Byron Berline and John Hickman.
After Harvard and UCLA, MBA degree in hand, Brown went to work as an investment banker. Her solo album, the GRAMMY-nominated Simple Pleasures, marked her return to composing and recording music. A three-year stint with AKUS and a year serving as band leader for Michelle Shocked was followed, and Alison was named Banjo Player of the Year by IBMA in 1991.
In 1995 she put her financial background to work, founding Compass Records with her husband, Garry West. Celebrating its 16th anniversary in 2010, the Nashville-based, internationally known Compass Records Group has a catalog of over 600 roots music releases across the Compass Records, Green Linnet, Mulligan Records and Xenophile catalogs.
Brown tours internationally with the Alison Brown Quartet, and her discography includes four releases on Vanguard Records as well as six on the Compass Records label, including The Company You Keep (March 2009).
Opportunities for bluegrass music---
Utilizing the internet effectively is one of the biggest opportunities available today to promote bluegrass music, Brown believes. “I think the way forward for artists and record labels is through building a community of fans for their music,” she says. “We have social networking tools now that we didn’t five years ago that are a very viable way for bands to do this.
“This notion of community is something that is very easy for people in bluegrass to embrace because it’s already so much a part of the culture of the music,” Brown adds. “One of the great joys of bluegrass is that it draws together the artists, the fans, the amateur players, the luthiers, the festival promoters, etc. in a way I haven’t seen in other genres. So, we have an advantage in bluegrass since the community infrastructure is already there, and the concept is so much a part of the ethos of the music.”
Challenges for bluegrass---
“I remember when I was growing up in San Diego in the ‘70s, how exciting it was to find any bluegrass records in stores,” Brown recalls. “That changed a lot in the 1980s and ‘90s, when bluegrass gained access to more and more lifestyle accounts at retail—places like Borders, Barnes & Noble and Tower Records. Now that some of these places are gone, how do we keep our music at retail? What will ‘retail’ be five years from now, and how do we keep our music visible to the consumer?
Brown is actively involved with an IBMA group of leaders in the record label constituency who have been exploring ways to work together. “As label leaders in the bluegrass industry, we’ve been looking at different things we can try to do with retailers so that bluegrass will get its share of the remaining shelf space,” she says. “One of the things we worked on this year was moving Worldwide Bluegrass Music Month from May to September to coincide with World of Bluegrass and the IBMA Awards Show—the time of the year when the national spotlight shines brightest on the music. Our hope is to work with brick and mortar retailers as well as digital accounts to create programs for bluegrass during this time and the results seem encouraging. We just learned that Baker and Taylor, a large one-stop distributor, moved their annual bluegrass program to September to coincide with World of Bluegrass. I believe that if we can all lock arms and work together, we’ll have the most impact.”
Opportunities for IBMA---
After four years on the IBMA Board of Directors, Brown says she is impressed by the professionalism of the leadership of the trade association. “The love of the music that guides everything IBMA does is so evident,” Brown says. “I’m excited about the possibilities of building on the grassroots initiative the board is working on now,” she notes, in reference to plans in the works now to re-vamp IBMA’s web presence and membership programs to be of even more use to the industry and of more interest to fans. “IBMA is a perfect place to help corral and give a virtual destination for bluegrass fans around the world.”
Challenges for IBMA---
Like most businesses and organizations in the current recession, Brown sees finances as a continuing challenge for IBMA. “Speaking as the treasurer of IBMA, I’m very acutely aware how much our financial health as a trade association depends on World of Bluegrass and the Bluegrass Fan Fest,” she observes. “So I think this is the time for people who love bluegrass music to show their support for an organization that I believe has done great things to promote bluegrass music and give it a real commercial viability in the industry.”
Trends & New Developments in the next 5-10 years—
Looking down the road into the next decade for both IBMA and the bluegrass genre, Brown says, “The thing I see that I love so much are all the kids out there playing bluegrass music so well. When I was growing up, I knew just a handful of other kid players—Stuart Duncan and a few others. It was nothing like all the teens and college age musicians now who are playing at such high levels. I think programs like the Strings Program at Berklee are great for bluegrass and for helping to cultivate the next crop of virtuoso pickers. It’s really fantastic, and I think the future of bluegrass music is in good hands.”