Rolly Brown
Rolly Brown has had a distinguished career in acoustic guitar, having been a US National Fingerpicking Champion, a Philadelphia Music Award Nominee, a sideman, solo performer, student, and teacher. His passions include folk, blues, ragtime, country, bluegrass, jazz, and swing. In the past couple of decades, he has been teaching and performing at guitar camps across North America. Rolly has made 15 instructional guitar DVDs for Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop, including ‘The Guitar of Bert Jansch’ in 2014. As a consultant on the Bert Transcribed Bert Jansch Songbook projects for the Bert Jansch Foundation, Rolly recognises Bert’s idiosyncrasies and feels extreme pleasure in being able to play Bert’s music and pass it on to a new generation.
Honor the Gardener
A piece by Rolly Brown for Bert Jansch
Rolly says: “I wrote this piece as soon as I was nominated for this journey, paying homage to Bert’s style. I tried to incorporate many of his devices: inner harmony lines built on hammers and pulls, vibrato and bent notes, and some of his and John Renbourn’s structural elements. The title is a reference to Bert’s often quoted statement that he would have probably been a gardener if music hadn’t panned out. I saw Bert perform several times through the ’70s and ’80s and played on the same bill with him at the Tasmanian Folk Festival in Australia around 1982, but never got to meet him.”
“Bert remains one of my greatest guitar heroes. I’m so pleased to be affiliated with this special project for Bert Jansch.”