BIOGRAPHIES
of Canadian Steelers
GENE
BROWN
Gene Brown started playing music professionally at the age
of 14 on bass guitar. He played nightclubs and social events for many years and
eventually made music a full time career. He started playing pedal steel guitar
at the age of 17 and that became his principle musical instrument. Gene did not
start writing songs and singing professionally until around the age of 20 and
moved on to Portland, Oregon to be closer to the music scene.
There he met a man by the name of Gene Breeden who owned a
recording studio called Ripcord Records and was hired on as a full time studio
musician. While working there he met many well-known recording artists and
began showing his material he had written to as many artists as he could. Gene
has had several of his songs published and recorded over the years with two of
them making it to a major label, Capitol Records in Los Angeles, California.
"If The World Ran Out Of Diesel" was soon to be recorded by Red
Simpson of Capitol Records and was performed live on the Dean Martin Television
Show in 1973. In addition, Jerry Naylor from Capitol Tower Records recorded a
Gene Brown song called "High on Happiness" and released it in 1967.
Gene's pen name is Hobert E. Brown and all of his
songs have been published under this name for professional reasons.
During his Career, Gene has performed lead vocals and backup
pedal steel guitar, also bass guitar with quite a number of Grand Ole Opry stars. The first Grand Ole Opry
star he became fortunate enough to work with was Bobby Bare ("Detroit
City" and "500 Miles Away From Home"). Gene has also worked with
many other Opry stars such as Dave Dudley ("Six
Days On The Road"), Red Sovine ("Teddy
bear"), Sheb Wooley
("That's My Pa"), The Family Brown in Canada, Dallas Harms (a great
Canadian writer), Johnny Russell and many more too numerous to mention here.
Gene traveled on the road with Dave Dudley doing auditorium shows and played
for two of the biggest rodeos in the world, The Pendleton Roundup and the
Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He also worked as a staff musician
on a weekly television show in Portland, Oregon for two years with Susan Raye (from the "Buck Owens Show" and "Hee Haw").
Gene moved to Whitehorse, Yukon in 1975 as a landed
immigrant and has lived there ever since. Gene has a wife named Carol who immigrated from New Zealand and they have a daughter named Krissy. Gene also has a daughter named Shelly and a son
named Tom. Gene has seven grandchildren. Shelly's five sons are Tyrone, Andrew,
Nicholas, Joseph and Michael. Tom has a daughter Augist
and a son Thomas.
Gene Brown has had a wonderful career performing with other
artists over the years and would now like to present to all country music
lovers around Canada and the world, his first country music CD featuring 10
songs he has written and recorded. This CD was a labour of love for Gene and he
recorded these songs from the heart. He feels deeply about his lyrics knowing
that each song will touch someone's heart somewhere.
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