Maggie Brown

Today’s voice to hear may be one of the more obscure of all the singers I have talked about so far. Her name is Maggie Brown and she was born in the same small Louisiana town as Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley, Ferriday. She has one album out and lives in a small town in Mississippi and bartends to add income to her life as a musician. She is also an English teacher with two kids.

She owes the start of her singing career to her Mom, who was quite a character in her own right. To read more of her early life and her Mom go to her webpage and read her bio. It’s a fascinating story.

Anyone who has a MySpace page knows what a pain it is to get dozens of “friend” requests from people who are really just trying to sell you something, the porn sites and the thousand-and-one musicians that you’ve never heard of and never want to hear of. That’s how I first learned of Maggie Brown. I got a “friend” request from her MySpace page and decided to check it out. She has made it worth all the other worthless friend requests I have had to plod through. I couldn’t believe how good she is.

I dare anyone to listen to “Forty Dollars” and not be instantly hooked. Her voice carries such a lived in, been there, done that, but I’ve survived and can sing about it sound that it just reaches out and grabs ahold of me. Her music has an edge of country with enough guitars in it to slide into that rock category.

To get her CD you’ll have to go to her site and order it. But you’ll be glad you did. She sings stories of life and living, hope and despair. I haven’t been this excited about a new singer in a long time. She’s that good.

I haven’t had a chance to see her live yet, though she performs not far from where I live in Mandeville quite often. So far her scheduled dates have always been bad for me, but I plan to change that soon and check her out live. I just have this feeling that she’ll be just as good in person as she is on vinyl. (Well, actually not on vinyl anymore, but I’m not sure what those cds are made out of.)

I’m hoping that she’s working on a new album, it’s been at least a year since her first one. I want to hear more music from this woman.