welcome to The Crowd

Jeannie Brown

Born: February 9th, 1958, Eisenhower era. My dad ran a gas station and gave the presiding doctor a new set of tires and a good spare in exchange for the delivery fee. It’s true!

Married: July 3rd, a Thursday, 1980, to Al Brown. He was way cute. Still is.

Mother of: Laura the Smart, Generous and Beautiful, Ben the Peaceful, Mellow and Handsome, and Helen the Helen, The Only One of Her Kind.

Pets: A German shepherd girl named Pep. She’s my best buddy.

Musician since: 1962. Honest. I was precocious. My brother took piano lessons and I had to do everything he did.

Key to my success: Being grounded for most of my high school years. I had PLENTY of time to sit at the piano and practice. Thanks, Mom!

Career: Piano teacher in my home studio with students age six and up, up, up! The recitals are awesome. I wish my high school students would never grow up and leave me.

Little known fact: I’ve been an elected library board trustee since 1995, board president for the past ten years. No pay, but I have a key to a LIBRARY! What could be better?

Musical influences: Katherine Godfrey, Bach, Clementi, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin. Hannon. Leonard Bernstein. Steppenwolf. Santana. Deep Purple. Captain Beyond. Allman Brothers. Booker T. Dave Brubeck. Billy Preston. Dean Martin’s and Tony Bennett’s pianists. Liberace. Billy Joel. John Lennon. Carol King. My brother Brian.

Weirdest gig: Playing for a wedding ceremony and reception on board a cruise yacht off of Navy Pier. The wedding was on the top deck, Al and I were on the bottom deck and I had to not only play for the processional/recessional, but a soloist, too, sight unseen. After the ceremony we set sail and it took a little while to get used to the rocking motion. We played for five hours!

Coolest gig: Probably that one, too, although I sure had a great time at my birthday gig at Shaker’s this year! Thanks guys…

Passion (besides music): Dirt. No one would believe how big my vegetable garden is. I start my own plants from seeds. Hundreds of them. I planted over forty tomato plants alone last year….and ninety pepper plants…and four kinds of summer squash and three kinds of Swiss chard and six kinds of pole beans and…well, you get the idea. Did I mention my herb garden? And flowers? And that it’s all organic? Okay, okay. Come see for yourselves. Bring a trowel. And refreshments.

Musical gear: Korg 01W for the growly organ and goofy synth sounds
Yamaha P88 weighted key unit for that real piano experience in a plastic
case…
Bran’ new Carvin keyboard amp that only weighs 46 pounds!
Kawai grand piano sitting in my living room…another best buddy. Don’t tell Pep.


Parting shot: Many thanks to Danny and Johnny and Markie M. and Markie C. and The Big A. and Chris the Boy Wonder for all the fun. I love playing music with them and sharing it with a happy audience! Viva la musica!