Nora Brown just got out of school.
When she finally began to be really discovered as a singer and artist, her YouTube videos were beginning to become popular and she was only 12.
Her daddy Benton Brown set up this interview, and they were kind enough to schedule it in. Between the busy folk festival venues she plays she studies and maintains an active social life with her friends and family.
She plays fiddle, banjo, ukulele and accordion, starting at age six. She learned from the late Schomo Pestcoe. Bluegrass Today published a story on her with the video done in the subways of New York City. She earned a first place ribbon at Clifftop in 2017 and was the subject of a fascinating three-minute film directed by Joshua Weinstein at a recent Tribeca Film Festival, according to the article by writer John Lawless. She is a bona fide prodigy steeped in the form of the late Doc Watson.
Her venues have included the windy Pier 6 Harvest Fest in Brooklyn.
She plays the Hills of Mexico at Brooklyn Bridge Park and Heroin.
Among her online admirers are one guy who writes “Nora is the real deal.”
She has won first place in the youth banjo competition in the Clifftop Appalachian String Band Festival.
Her wardrobe is funky mountain girl with caps and tobagans. Don’t forget the flannel shirts, long-sleeved. Her father advertises Crown Finish Caves which is a licensed dairy plant in the former lagering tunnels of the Nassau Brewery in Crown Heights Brooklyn.
The cheese found all over New York from Hudson to Alexandria, Va. to Washington, D.C. to Potomac, Md. to the Mid Atlantic in Alexandria, Va. to Cincinnati, Ohio to the Northeast in Boston, Ma. to Brattleboro, Vt. to Philadelphia, Pa. and Springfield, N.J.
You find it even in the South in Milton, Ga., Durham, N.C., New Orleans, La. to Nashville, Tenn and in California in San Francisco, Sausalito and LA. Go to Whole Foods Markets too.
Nora talked about music on her career.
“I play banjo, a fretless banjo, accordion and I play ukulele . i am learning guitar. i play a little fiddle.”
It looks like she has a long career ahead of her.
“I didn’t start performing professionally until maybe a year or two ago. I played on stage at little hootnannies when i was young.
An how old is this prodigy?
“I am 13,” she said.
She said that her favorite song “changes a lot.”
“It depends on who I am playing with a lot,” she said. One song she enjoys is “East Virginia.”
What kind of food does she like? Sushi.
Does she have any eyes on recording deals?
“We are working on something,” she said. On music:
“I like how it tells a lot of stories and tells of the past.
She has a brother and many friends at school.
Nora does not watch TV much but she liked movies and saw the first Jurassic Park recently. Her favorite subject in school is Spanish. She leans toward the Democratic party.
“Because it seems like usually the democrats who run for president pay a lot more attention to communities. I’m not an adult because I don’t really vote.”
She is thankful to her father for his guidance and support.
“He helps me gets different shows and helps me contact people and work on things,” said the teen.
