Third Person About
Willi Brown is a writer, musician, technologista, buddhist, texan, californian, teacher and a yogi. Willi Brown speaks english, hell he majored in english… and once lived in the Outerlands of San Francisco. There’s a certain symmetry to that.
First Person About Me
Ah, what to say? It’s rather like an online dating blurb, no? Tho I am a scatter-brain with interests and activities wide and deep (um, yes diagnose as ADD), I been a musician for most of my life. I’ve also wandered back and forth… Surprise?
So, I got rhythm from the gate and started banging the pots and pans really young. Got some drums for bday 12 and quickly mastered that four-on-the-floor in the pocket beat. I did marching band on the snare for a year in east Texas 8th grade – it was a form of hot hell. I did some garage band jams with neighborhood dudes… but nothing lasts.
One day on the school bus at 15, I heard “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain” by Willie Nelson and it blew my little suburban mind. So I got a guitar for my 15th birthday along with a songbook “Country Hits and Harmony Grits”. I don’t actually recall any “country” in that book but learned some CSN, Allman Bros, Eagles… stuff like that. At 17, I met a dude who lent me “The Dharma Bums” and a Bob Dylan songbook with all that early “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Maggies Farm” stuff. In less than a summer, I had learned a few dozen Dylan tunes and absorbed some tricks about lyrics and song construction. It was as they say, “ON”.
Read more: aboutI started writing songs after reading a Costello quote “Nick Lowe told me it’s just three or four chords mate, simple!” After writing a dozen blues off of stock progressions, I realized one day that I had written a unique thing and found my voice. But I was a college student and had no time for a band. But I wrote songs probably every other day.
After leaving Austin (yes, you heard that right), I played around in a few “alt rock” bands finally ending up in Nashville where I started getting high and drinking again. Anyway, the country music machine couldn’t sell my “weird songs” and I split for Seattle in my van – having both friends and family there and wanting to be near the ocean and mountains. I had no interest in grunge – my tape deck was rolling Gorka, Colvin and Camper Van.