Artists:Brian The Folksinger

Brian The Folksinger was born in 1959 and lived in New England and Spain before his family settled in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1965. He began playing music with piano and chorus during elementary school. By the age of 13 he was performing at coffeehouses on the east coast, singing and playing guitar. At 14, he was playing professionally in the Bahamas. By 16, he'd made his first full circuit of the lower 48, a pattern he would continue almost every year up to the present. Through high school, he was doing professional lecture performances on American folk music at elementary, high schools, and colleges on the east coast, as well as standard performances and coffeehouses and his first folk festivals. After high school, he decided to stop pursuing professional music and incorporated a tree planting business, running a crew from Maine to Texas for three years, and planning on starting an organic farm and apiary, and leave music for recreational purposes.

When this partnership fell apart, he took off on a mountain bike, incidentally leaving his guitar behind and taking only the hammered dulcimer. A period of personal reflection and a 1983-1984 tour of Central America with the dulcimer set Brian back on the path of a performer. This time, however, he avoided the business and kept on a simple and anonymous path, with music as a spiritual calling rather than a business. Drawing on historical musical traditions, he followed the "bardic way", striving to serve the people with his gift, to use music to heal and enlighten, to bring joy and laughter, and solace, and even sometimes understanding, but not pursuing fame or fortune. He talked and told stories as much as played, trying to use both words and music as a means of spiritual, emotional, and social consciousness raising. He played street scenes, university commons, and busked at festivals and fairs, from the largest to the smallest, playing anywhere he happened to be, anywhere and anytime someone asked him to play, for anyone who stopped to listen. He played at campfires and cabins, on sailing ships and in airplanes, in small bars and cafes, living rooms and kitchens. He lived the true life of a folksinger, though he never played at a folk festival, or music festival, or knew anything about who or what was going on in that world.

When he burned out from the music, which happens pretty regularly, he'd retreat back to the wild lands of the mountains, deserts or offshore islands in a small sailboat. He'd occasionally spent time working at something for a few days or weeks; not for money but for the real life experiences to contribute to his music, just as he returned to the wilderness or the sea to seek calm and beauty to "tune himself," to seek clarity and inspiration.

He sporadically produced budget recordings because people kept asking him to, and gave them out on the street for donations. In 1996, he produced two CDs, one of originals and one of traditionals. These are the recordings people have heard on the internet, mostly the traditionals.

The present chapter of his life begins with the decision to accept that his music deserves more serious efforts. He is now trying to bring his music to more people; making it available on CDs, offering to play at more standard venues, and for larger audiences, and using internet based promotion and distribution. He's assembled professional audio and video recording and production gear, not as much to make a record as leave a record. Still, he hopes to start producing regular recordings and videos, as time, energy, and funds allow. He produced the first CD with his own gear, A Hobo's Dulcimer, in 2004. His main plan for the future is to keep putting out recordings and begin traveling internationally, and to move beyond the routine circuit he follows from Florida, where he moors his sailboat, to Alaska (where he has five acres near Delta Junction) and back each year..