I am a musician, teacher, and banjo book author based in Louisville, Kentucky. I teach online private lessons and group classes to students around the world. I also work as the Education Coordinator for the Louisville Folk School.
I teach online private fiddle, banjo, and guitar lessons to students all around the globe. Check out the Teaching page to learn more about lessons with me and then head to the Contact page to set one up. I teach group classes at the Louisville Folk School here in Kentucky. They’ve got a great roster of teachers and an assortment of in person, hybrid, and online classes.
I am the author of the 2023 tablature book Thumb Lead Two-Finger Banjo. It collects arrangements that I’ve been using for over a decade to teach the style at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, and now online to students worldwide. I share some lessons for free on YouTube, but most of my two-finger banjo arranging and teaching is done through Patreon. For $15/month, patrons receive two lessons a month (video tutorial + tab) and access to a growing community of likeminded banjoists who are pursuing the style. You can do a seven-day free trial by signing up on Patreon here!
I have been on staff at The Colorado Suzuki Institute, Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, Strings by the Sea, the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, Old-Time Week at The Swannanoa Gathering, and Southern Week at Ashokan (the ending of which in 1982 inspired camp co-director Jay Ungar to compose "Ashokan Farewell"). I’ve taught workshops at Berklee College of Music, Morehead State University, Swallow Hill Music, The School For Strings, Music for Youth, and the Music Institute of Chicago. From 2011 to 2019, I was a teaching artist at Chicago’s venerable Old Town School of Folk Music, where I also helped lead a fiddle-centric summer camp for kids. I’ve also taught at the Queen Bee Music Association bluegrass camps for kids in Crested Butte, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both events are wonderful, and are run by my childhood friend Lindsay Taylor. It was for Lindsay and her sister Laura that I wrote the fiddle tune “Taylor Girls” many years ago at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
I am originally from West Chester, Pennsylvania. I was introduced to old-time music by my father, Tim Brown, who encouraged me from an early age to learn to play the fiddle. My family went to banjo gatherings, old-time music festivals, and hosted jam sessions & concerts in our home and in nearby venues. I studied classical violin in the Philadelphia area with Linda Litwin and Richard Amoroso, and began to play the fiddle formally under the tutelage of Palmer Loux. In my teens, I attended several immersive residential summer camps devoted to old-time music (see The Swannanoa Gathering and Ashokan below), where I met and began to study with an array of extraordinary old-time musicians including Brad Leftwich, Bruce Molsky, Rafe Stefanini, Paul Brown, and Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz.
I learned a lot by playing in the band for the percussive dance ensemble Rhythm in Shoes under the musical direction of Rick Good, and later doing the same for Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble under the musical direction of Mark Schatz. I have been lucky enough to perform at some great venues and festivals such as the Grand Ole Opry, The Station Inn, The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Wheatland Music Festival, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival, as well as at coffee houses, listening rooms, and house concerts across the United States.
I have made guest appearances with The Special Consensus, Tim O'Brien, The John Hartford Stringband, Uncle Earl, Dirk Powell & Riley Baugus, and Della Mae, and have performed with Brittany Haas, Big Sadie, Robbie Fulks, Justin Roberts, The Steel Wheels, Paul Brown, Greg Reish, Dennis Cahill, Gia Margaret, Grant Ziolkowski, and various musicians from the Volo Bogtrotters. One of the shortest but most rewarding musical experiences I've had was sitting in with Mike Snider's band on the Grand Ole Opry for the first time in April 2015. I subsequently got to join him there again in July 2016.
I released four albums on my father's 5-String Productions label, including My Native Home, which includes collaborations with Tim O’Brien, Ben Krakauer, Brittany Haas, and Mark Schatz. On that recording, I play and sing mostly traditional material, including some rarely heard ballads from my home state of Pennsylvania. I was also delighted to be featured on the Compass Records tribute album, Dear Jean: Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie, which was released on September 2, 2014.
In August 2015, I traveled to Nashville to record an instrumental album of old-time fiddle & guitar duets with guitarist Greg Reish. Engineered and co-produced by GRAMMY-winner Dave Sinko, Speed of the Plow comprises square dance tunes, rags, blues, and melodies reinterpreted from the solo fiddle repertory. Sources and inspirations include Virginia fiddler Emmett Lundy, Oklahoma’s Uncle Dick Hutchison, West Virginia-born Ed Haley (whom John Hartford championed), North Carolina’s Benton Flippen, and many more. The album was released on October 9, 2015, and can be streamed on Spotify and countless other services. Greg and I played album release concerts at venues across the country including the Old Town School of Folk Music, Swallow Hill Music, Club Passim, and Music City Roots.
From early 2016 through the end of 2018, I was a member of the Chicago-based quartet Big Sadie. Centered around the gorgeous harmony singing of songwriters Elise Bergman & Collin Moore, the band is equally at home on a festival stage, in an auditorium hall, accompanying a dance, busking on a sidewalk, passing tunes around a circle, or in an intimate rock club. Big Sadie has opened for acts ranging from country-music legend Marty Stuart to pop and indie-rock outfit Wild Belle. We recorded our debut album of Elise & Collin’s original material in December of 2016. That album was released on May 19, 2017 with a hometown release concert and party in Chicago at The Hideout.
During the quarantine for Covid-19, I hosted a music-themed podcast entitled Relax Your Grid. For years I’ve wondered if I might be able to have a radio show somewhere, somehow, and then podcasts were invented and a pandemic kept me locked away at home, and I saw a chance to launch a monthly conversation with my heroes, colleagues, clients, and friends in the music industry. Click here to learn more and to listen.
I love producing albums, and am available for freelance production work on location or remotely. You can find my discography as a producer and learn about my methodology on the Producing page, and then reach out to me if you’d like to discuss working together.
My most recent releases as a producer are Michelle Billingsley’s 2020 debut album, Not the Marrying Kind, and two singles by banjo phenom Max Allard. Before that, I spent several years creating On Big Shoulders, a grant-funded Chicago-themed Americana album for which I was the executive producer. I assembled twelve of my favorite Chicago musicians to play ten songs with links to Chicago. Co-produced by GRAMMY-nominee Liam Davis, the album includes a sweet Sam Cooke number, an old Delmore Brothers piece, a Wilco cover, and a new Robbie Fulks song that Robbie wrote specifically for us. Check out the record and its merch right here.
One of the unexpected outcomes of creating On Big Shoulders was that we met and collaborated with legendary Chess Records artist Barbara Carr whose song “Shake Your Head” we covered on the album. She was the very special guest at our album release show in Chicago in 2018, and then we had the honor of playing an entire show with her in 2019 at my favorite Chicagoland venue, SPACE. The latter performance comprised her signature song as well as some deep cuts written by her St. Louis contemporaries. It was an unforgettable night.
Discography (Artist)
Meet Me by the Moonlight - Annie Patterson (2005)
Lone Prairie – Matt Brown (2006)
Red Clay Country – Paul Brown (2006)
Old-Time Fiddle Lesson, Vol. 1 – Matt Brown (2007)
Falls of Richmond – Matt Brown (2008)
In the Moment – Jane Rothfield (2008)
Cataloochee – Carol Elizabeth Jones (2008)
My Native Home – Matt Brown (2010)
Dear Jean: Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie – Various Artists (2014)
Speed of the Plow – Matt Brown & Greg Reish (2015)
Keep Me Waiting – Big Sadie (2017)
“Smile at the Sunset” - J. Ivy & Matt Brown (2018)
On Big Shoulders – Various Artists (2018)
“Grey Owl” - Max Allard, Otto Allard & Matt Brown (2020)
“Rooster” - Max Allard, Otto Allard & Matt Brown (2020)
Not the Marrying Kind - Michelle Billingsley (2020)
Select Performances
Grand Ole Opry – Nashville, TN
The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage – Washington, D.C.
Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival – Oak Hill, NY
Wheatland Music Festival – Remus, MI
Philadelphia Folk Festival – Upper Salford, PA
Music City Roots – Franklin, TN
Old Town School of Folk Music – Chicago, IL
Club Passim – Cambridge, MA
Swallow Hill Music – Denver, CO
The Station Inn - Nashville, TN
University of Kentucky – Lexington, KY
Tours
Rhythm in Shoes
Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble
The Steel Wheels
Matt Brown (solo)
Matt Brown & Greg Reish
Guest Appearances
The Special Consensus
Tim O'Brien
The John Hartford Stringband
Uncle Earl
Dirk Powell & Riley Baugus
Della Mae
Robbie Fulks
Mike Snider
The Mammals
Crooked Still
The Wilders
Select Teaching Engagements
Berklee College of Music – Boston, MA
Morehead State University – Morehead, KY
DePaul University – Chicago, IL
Old Town School of Folk Music – Chicago, IL
Louisville Folk School – Louisville, KY
Music for Youth – Arlington Heights, IL
Music Institute of Chicago – Evanston, IL
Southern Week at Ashokan Music & Dance – Ashokan, NY
The School for Strings – New York, NY
American Roots Music Program at Rocky Ridge Music Center – Estes Park, CO
The Colorado Suzuki Institute – Beaver Creek, CO
Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp – Winter Park, CO
Strings by the Sea – San Diego, CA
Old-Time Week at The Swannanoa Gathering – Swannanoa, NC
Intermountain Suzuki String Institute – Salt Lake City, UT
Queen Bee Music Assocation Kids Bluegrass Camps – Sante Fe, NM & Crested Butte, CO