Alison Browns On Banjo Debuts At #1 On Billboards Bluegrass Albums Chart

Brown played Earl Scruggs iconic Gibson banjo at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's donation event on 5.22.

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Jason Kempin/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

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Alison Brown is one of the world's most revered banjo players, and she proves it on her latest album On Banjo (out now via Compass Records). The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Bluegrass Albums Chart. Listen here: found.ee/onbanjo

On Banjo is the culmination of the tremendous impact Brown has made on the instrument and its identity over the last few decades. She changed the trajectory of the banjo forever in 1991, when she won IBMAs Banjo Player of the Year, becoming the first woman to win in an instrumental category. As the only female five-string banjoist inducted into the American Banjo Hall of Fame, she has blazed a trail for female banjo players to come.

With her latest record, she enlists GRAMMY-winning musician/actor/author Steve Martin, multicultural chamber group Kronos Quartet, and long-time fiddle collaborator Stuart Duncan, as well as fellow female virtuosos: mandolinist Sierra Hull, jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen, and GRAMMY-winning classical guitarist Sharon Isbin. Through these eclectic and daring collaborations, Brown shows how the banjo can innovate intro genres including classical, jazz, Brazilian choro and more.

Despite her San Diego, CA upbringing, Brown was entranced by the music coming from the Appalachian region of the country. She names Earl Scruggs as her biggest influence and yesterday (5.22), she had the honor of performing "Earl’s Breakdown" on Scuggs’s donated Gibson banjo before it was donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Watch Brown's performance with

The Earls of Leicester, HERE.

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