Q&A with beloved Iowa songster Greg Brown ahead of final, sold-out Englert shows

Although Iowa songster Greg Brown’s two-night concert at the Englert Theatre is billed as a retirement show, Brown already considers himself retired.

This was just a “wild hair,” he said.

Brown doesn’t intend to do any more shows — though he's open to a possible local benefit show or something similar — tours or recordings after this. This means attendees of his two sold-out concerts Feb. 16 and 17 may experience one of Brown’s last performances, or at least witness a formal bookend to Brown’s five decades-long career that includes dozens of albums like “The Iowa Waltz” and “Dream Café,” two Grammy Award nominations and lending his voice to Anaïs Mitchell’s “Hadestown” concept album.

The 73-year-old spoke to the Press-Citizen on the phone from his home in Iowa City about his devotion to music, one particularly moving performance and retirement.

Q&A with Greg Brown

Iowa City Press-Citizen: What have done during this time period where you consider yourself pretty much retired?

Greg Brown: I still play a little bit and sing a little bit and then I try some writing. I’ve been trying writing some stories and this and that. Then, I have a family, most of whom are right here in this area, so I spend time with them… I’m really good at just poking around. I’ll find a book I want to read or walk in the woods. I’ve always been really good at that. I’ve never been sure that we’re put here to do any huge things. I think we’re mostly meant to enjoy each other’s company and try to make the world a little better place. It’s been just fine not touring anymore. I toured for a long time and it was just time to do something else.

Iowa City Press-Citizen: I read this from a Press-Citizen article from the late 1970s that at that time, you called yourself a “songster.” I was very curious, decades later, how do you describe yourself as a musician and your approach to music?

Brown: Well, songster is a pretty good term. You don’t hear it much. People like Mance Lipscomb, a country blues guy, he referred to himself as a songster. A lot of those country blues guys they not only played blues, they played popular songs of the day. They played at parties, dances and a variety of things. That’s kind of how I saw myself, and I always kind of liked that word, songster. I never liked the word singer-songwriter. It sounds like some kind of machine. So, I just picked that word. It was mostly because I like Mance Lipscomb and some of those other folk, country blues players.

Iowa City Press-Citizen: Another thing that I read that I just thought was a great story the way you delivered it to the reporter, you recount that you years ago had actually missed your first Saturday night gig at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village and you said that the owner’s brother came out and helped you get back into the club. Do you ever think about what you might have been doing if music just didn’t end up working out?

Brown: You know, it’s entirely possible if Johnny Porco hadn’t come on the street and said, "Hey, what’s going on?" and given me another chance, I might have just come home and finished up college and had a job. In fact, when I was around 30, I decided to quit. I was making a living, but that was about it. I thought, "Man, I don’t know if I want to be doing this 20 years from now." So, I was about ready to quit and then I was thinking of going back to school and studying something along the lines of field biology or forestry, something where you’d be outdoors like that. That was my plan and then all of a sudden, I got a call and Willie Nelson and Carlos Santana recorded a song (of mine, "They All Went to Mexico") and then also, I got an invitation to go sing in the “A Prairie Home Companion” radio show. A lot of stuff just kind of fell in my lap. I decided I would stay with it, otherwise I’d be doing something different now. It would have meant some kind of outdoor jobs.

Iowa City Press-Citizen: You have been so active in your career for all these years. Is there something that can be done to keep the love for music going all these years? Is it innate for you?

Brown: It was an innate thing. When I was (a) little child, I started writing poems. I picked up the ukulele. I just loved it right away. Poetry, and music and storytelling. I never lost my love for that. I think you have to be a certain type of person to be able to make it on the road. The road’s hard. You got to be strong. I was strong and I went out there and did it for a long time. But, I never lost my love for it. I always told myself if you get to where you feel like you’re going through the motions, get out. I never wanted to be somebody going through the motions. I loved it from the get-go. I still do.

Iowa City Press-Citizen: I’m curious if there are any particularly fond memories you have over the course of your career, any performances or moments that have really stood out to you years later?

Brown: There’s a lot of them. I’ll tell you one of them. In 1988, I was playing out of the East Coast in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and I got a call. My grandmother passed away in southern Iowa. So I flew home right away and went down. They lived down south of Fairfield, out in the country, and I went back and sang at the funeral. Then I flew back out to the East Coast and I got a gig that night in a little club… and I went out to play and I thought, "I can’t play tonight." I was totally exhausted, physically, emotionally. But I went out anyway. I sang a song and the crowd — I don’t know if word gets spread, I don’t what happened — but anyway, the crowd was so kind to me and I felt as if there was a big hand under me holding me up. It was quite a feeling to feel that much love and concern from the crowd and that’s what got me through that night. I’ve always remembered that because I really felt like I had nothing that night and then because of the feelings I got from the audience, I was able to do it and that was a beautiful feeling.

Iowa City Press-Citizen: That’s incredible. Such respect from the audience, too.

Brown: Yeah. That’s the reason we do it. There’s a relationship there. One thing I’ve always liked about my job is I go out and sing. Then I get all these wonderful people together… they get to know each other and form friendships. I’ve met quite a few people who got married after they were at one of my shows. So, it’s a communal thing when you’re playing, you and that community are sharing that whole deal that particular night and that’s a wonderful thing.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or 319-519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Q&A with Iowa songster Greg Brown ahead of Englert Theatre concerts