Long Time To Be Gone

by Nora Brown

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brit_b I have listened to bluegrass and old-timey style banjo music for many years. Nora Brown has the most poetic interpretation of these styles that I have heard so far. She is the John Fahey of banjo (but also with striking vocals). Favorite track: Little Satchel.

Michael Mueller There's something otherworldly about Nora Brown.

She is an innovative, highly accomplished stylist and true artist who somehow taps into the very essence American Primitivism right at the point it intersects with the usually obscured introspective heart of Bluegrass.

She's more than a prodigy, she's an oracle. A time-traveller. Listening to her music is both transportive and transformative, such is her hypnotic precision and liquid feel.

Can she get better? I can't wait to find out.
Favorite track: Cumberland Gap.

jiristepan I've been obsessed with Nora Brown's new album Long Time To Be Gone few months now. At seventeen, she plays like a mythical banjo legend and her music touches me with something terribly believable. Enchanting.

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

As bonus items we have also included a video of Nora Brown performing the banjo tune "Miner's Dream" and a PDF of the liner notes booklet.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
This special vinyl edition of Long Time to Be Gone includes:

• Each record is a different randomized color... which one will you get?! Each record is unique.

• Custom printed sleeves with liner notes

• Hand printed letterpress download card

Nora Brown returns with her third full-length album, Long Time To Be Gone. Recorded at the historic St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights, this mesmerizing collection of traditional tunes and songs follows her performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, where she was lauded for bringing “incredible, surprising depth to the Appalachian music she plays”; and 2021’s Sidetrack My Engine, which debuted at #6 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart.

“I recorded my last project in an underground tunnel,” says Brown, “but this time we were working in a cavernous church, which allowed us to really experiment with all the sounds that different locations in the sanctuary and different mic configurations could produce. When you listen, you can hear the expanse of the space pretty clearly, which was really important to our approach on these recordings.”

This album offers a snapshot of a remarkable young artist, showcasing both her instrumental abilities and her poignant, understated vocal delivery. The songs draw on the lived experiences of a broad swath of Americans, keeping their stories and spirits alive with reverence and vitality. Brown plays a variety of unique instruments on the record, too, including an 1888 Luscomb banjo owned by her great-great-grandfather, a fretless tack head banjo built by her dad, and an historic 5-string banjo that belonged to one of her mentors, New Lost City Ramblers member John Cohen (the instrument was played by Roscoe Halcomb on his iconic High Lonesome Sound album and is now in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress).

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Brown first began learning stringed instruments at the age of six from the late Shlomo Pestcoe, who instilled a belief that music is meant to be shared. In the decade to come, she would go on study with old-time masters like Cohen, Lee Sexton, and George Gibson, win numerous banjo and folk song competitions around the country, and have her work featured everywhere from NPR’s All Songs Considered to WNYC’s Dolly Parton’s America. Brown made her Billboard Bluegrass Chart debut in 2019, hitting #7 with her first album, Cinnamon Tree, and followed it up in 2021 with the critically acclaimed Sidetrack My Engine, which American Songwriter proclaimed to be “an exhibit of sonic heirlooms carefully amended to meet a modern moment with vintage elegance.”

Brown will preview Long Time To Be Gone with an intimate 7/11 performance at the City Winery Loft in NYC before celebrating the album’s official release with an 8/26 headline show at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn, where the collection was recorded.

"Long Time to Be Gone is a quietly important record — not simply an enthusiastic chunk of reverence to an old-time ethos, but a work that marks its teenage creator as not only a fine musical talent, but also an educator and evangelist, a living, breathing vessel for the nurturing of a rich and remarkable tradition."
- No Depression

"The minimalist folksongs on Long Time to Be Gone are shadowy and sublime..."
- Bandcamp Daily

Includes unlimited streaming of Long Time To Be Gone via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
... more

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Join now to receive all the new music Jalopy Records releases, including this album and 45 back-catalog items, delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android. You’ll also get access to supporter-only exclusives. Learn more.

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1.	Jenny Put the Kettle On 02:00		buy track
2.	Miner's Dream 02:01 video		buy track
3.	Bertie Mae's Chilly Winds 01:21		buy track
4.	Southern Texas 03:38		buy track
5.	French Waltz 01:53		buy track
6.	Cumberland Gap 01:08		buy track
7.	Shortnin’ Bread 01:38		buy track
8.	Wild Goose Chase 03:06		buy track
9.	Coal Creek March 01:31		buy track
10.	Little Satchel 03:17 video		buy track
11.	Wade’s Tune 01:32		buy track
12.	Coke Oven March 01:31 video	info	buy track
13.	Po' Black Sheep 01:36		buy track
14.	Flowery Girls 02:12		buy track
15.	Rye Whiskey - Little Birdie 04:23		buy track

about

“In her playing, an intense involvement is revealed as the music appears to wash over her. She sings of experiences way beyond her years, old songs from Appalachian sources, stories that reflect a more difficult way of life.” - John Cohen

“Extraordinary” - NPR

Nora Brown returns with her third full-length album, Long Time To Be Gone. Recorded at the historic St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights, this mesmerizing collection of traditional tunes and songs follows her performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, where she was lauded for bringing “incredible, surprising depth to the Appalachian music she plays”; and 2021’s Sidetrack My Engine, which debuted at #6 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart.

“I recorded my last project in an underground tunnel,” says Brown, “but this time we were working in a cavernous church, which allowed us to really experiment with all the sounds that different locations in the sanctuary and different mic configurations could produce. When you listen, you can hear the expanse of the space pretty clearly, which was really important to our approach on these recordings.”

This album offers a snapshot of a remarkable young artist, showcasing both her instrumental abilities and her poignant, understated vocal delivery. The songs draw on the lived experiences of a broad swath of Americans, keeping their stories and spirits alive with reverence and vitality. Brown plays a variety of unique instruments on the record, too, including an 1888 Luscomb banjo owned by her great-great-grandfather, a fretless tack head banjo built by her dad, and an historic 5-string banjo that belonged to one of her mentors, New Lost City Ramblers member John Cohen (the instrument was played by Roscoe Halcomb on his iconic High Lonesome Sound album and is now in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress).

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Brown first began learning stringed instruments at the age of six from the late Shlomo Pestcoe, who instilled a belief that music is meant to be shared. In the decade to come, she would go on study with old-time masters like Cohen, Lee Sexton, and George Gibson, win numerous banjo and folk song competitions around the country, and have her work featured everywhere from NPR’s All Songs Considered to WNYC’s Dolly Parton’s America. Brown made her Billboard Bluegrass Chart debut in 2019, hitting #7 with her first album, Cinnamon Tree, and followed it up in 2021 with the critically acclaimed Sidetrack My Engine, which American Songwriter proclaimed to be “an exhibit of sonic heirlooms carefully amended to meet a modern moment with vintage elegance.”

Brown will preview Long Time To Be Gone with an intimate 7/11 performance at the City Winery Loft in NYC before celebrating the album’s official release with an 8/26 headline show at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn, where the collection was recorded.

credits

released August 26, 2022

Recorded at St. Ann's Church, edited and mixed at Studio808A by Joseph "joebass" DeJarnette
Mastered by Don Fierro
Produced by Eli Smith

Jalopy Records
JR013

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about

Nora Brown Brooklyn, New York

Nora plays traditional music with a focus on southern Appalachian banjo and guitar playing. Along with mentors in the northeast like the late John Cohen she also has traveled and learned directly from master musicians including Alice Gerrard, George Gibson and the late Lee Sexton and Art Rosenbaum. ... more

shows

Nov 22

Small Batch Cellars

North Haven, CT
Nov 23

Iron Horse Music Hall

Northampton, MA
Nov 24

Groton Hill Music Center

Groton, MA
Jan 3

Blue Room, Third Man Records

Nashville, TN
Jan 4

Laurel Theater

Knoxville, TN

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