Nora Brown

Nora was first introduced to old-time traditional music when she was six years old from her teacher, Shlomo Pescoe, a traditional music fanatic: he was as much of a historian as a musician. Each week she'd go into his home, replete with old-time memorabilia, and sit down for her lesson in the center of a circle of instruments. Though starting on the ukulele, with Shlomo's instruction, Nora began to learn a number of traditional instruments including the fiddle, mandolin and finally the banjo. This introduction to traditional music led to a deep love of the music and an appreciation for the history that comes along with it.

Continuing to learn music, Nora has spent time in Appalachia, specifically Eastern KY, visiting masters of the banjo like the late Lee sexton and George Gibson. Her experiences visiting, learning from, and listening to the stories of older banjo players like Lee Sexton have created a deeper connection between Nora and her music. She has a particular interest in music from this region, focusing her banjo playing and repertoire from this area. She has absorbed much of this music, forming her own unique style.


Over the years, Nora has gained recognition as a solo performer, she has performed across the country at venues and festivals including TED Salon in NYC, NPR Tiny Desk,
Joe’s Pub, the Floyd Radio Show, the Brooklyn Folk Festival, Oldtone Roots Music Festival, the Parlor Room in MA, Irvington Folk Festival, Blue Ox Festival in WI, Mountain Song Festival in NC, and has had multiple month long residencies at the famed venue, Barbès, in Brooklyn NY.
In addition to solo performance, Nora also performs as a duo with artists such as Stephanie Coleman, Jackson Lynch and Hannah Reed.

Nora released her first LP Cinnamon Tree at the age of 14. Produced by Alice Gerrard, the album offers a window into Nora's banjo playing and singing. Two years later, Nora released her second album Sidetrack My Engine, an EP. This project was recorded in an underground cellar, on vintage RCA mics. After its release it was featured on Apple Music’s “American Best Songs New In Acoustic'' and Spotify’s “Grass Roots” playlist . Both Cinnamon Tree and Sidetrack My Engine placed at #6 on the Billboard Bluegrass Charts, the latter in the 1st week of its release. Both albums were released on Jalopy Records exclusively in vinyl and digital formats.

In addition to performance and learning traditional music herself, Nora spends time teaching the banjo, both in private lessons and also in a workshop setting. She has taught at the Ashokan Center’s long standing old-time camp known as Southern Week in Olivebridge, NY, and currently teaches workshops through the Handmade Music School in Floyd, VA. and the Jalopy School of Music in Brooklyn, NY.

Nora has also participated in a variety of podcasts such as WNYC’s Dolly Parton’s America, and NPR’s Weekend Edition and All Songs Considered.


Nora has won numerous banjo and folk song competitions at various fiddler’s conventions
including the Clifftop Appalachian String Band Music Festival and Grayson County Old-time
and Bluegrass Fiddlers Convention.



“Extraordinary” (NPR Music) “Rising Star” (NPR Weekend Edition)

“Some of the most interesting and haunting traditional music we’ve heard... impossibly talented… One thing that I really loved about both your albums is that both your banjo technique and your vocals are amazing. You seem to be mining these old songs with emotions far beyond your years.”
–Jason Verlinde, Fretboard Journal, September, 2021


“Sidetrack My Engine is both a reverent nod to deeply-rooted ole-time traditions, and an exhibit ofsonic heirlooms carefully amended to meet a modern moment with vintage elegance.”
–Madeline Crone, American Songwriter, September 25, 2021


“[In her playing,] an intense involvement is revealed as the music appears to wash over her. She
sings of experiences way beyond her years, old songs from Appalachian sources, stories that reflect a more difficult way of life.”
– John Cohen (Musicologist, photographer, filmmaker and founding member of the New Lost City
Ramblers)


“[In Nora’s playing] this fretless version of the banjo, more in tune with its African ancestry, allows a seamless glissando, a spirited game of snakes and ladders, doggedly climbing and then slipping easily back to the start.”
-Richard Hollingum, UK Folk Radio, January 3, 2021