CMT Blog: Alison Brown

Festival season has started in full force, and our conditioning for outdoor venues, coupled with multiple consecutive dates, has begun. Our weekend started with our departure from Nashville to Ladysmith, Va. Though rain had pounded the festival grounds just days before, it turned into a perfect sunny day. We performed two shows, our last being the festival closer, before we boarded the Martha White Bluegrass Express, en route to Merlefest in Wilkesboro, N.C. Merlefest is completely different than any other venue we ever play, and even more so this year. Read more...

Ignore those people that say jet lag is just a state of mind. I'm here to categorically state that it's real, and it's doing my sleep patterns a lot of damage. After being in Australia for two weeks, I was barely back in the States long enough to adjust before I flew to Scotland for 10 days, and now I'm back in Nashville. My body doesn't know whether it's night or day -- but it's not all bad. Waking up at 6 a.m. wide awake when you are a musician is quite a novelty, and this maybe the first time I've realized there are two 6 o'clocks in the same day.

Glasgow is an incredible city -- vibrant and modern in the best European style. I was there to perform with the Greencards as part of the Celtic Connections Festival, a stunning display of Celtic music from all over the world, as well as American folk musicians such as Jerry Douglas, Tim O'Brien and Joan Osborne. We played a show with Alison Brown that ended up in a super-jam at the end, skippered by Tim O'Brien singing "Blue Night." Tim was in rare form the whole week, and at one point he actually stopped the band and gave the audience a solo! He may have become my favourite person in the world ...

I saw all the acts I wanted to, and often the music would rage till 7 or 8 a.m. I can barely remember leaving the residents' bar as folk were coming down for breakfast! Such a life would be reckless if it weren't all in the name of music. ... And so from one extreme to the other, I'm now preparing to fly out on Saturday to L.A. for the Grammys. I've got my suit ready and a quick ironing of my shirt this evening should see me ready to clink glasses of chardonnay with fellow pop star prima donnas. Simply gaining a nomination is a big deal for the band, so even if we lose, we've still won a great deal. I'm keeping my fingers crossed however, so check this space for more info after Sunday night.