Bluegrass and Banjos: How Jack Brown Found His Passion

As the heart and soul of country music, Appalachian bluegrass artists carry tradition one note at a time. Following in the footsteps of the greats like Earl Scruggs and Ron Block, up-and-coming banjo player Jack Brown is picking with the best.

Brown, 21, was born in Maryville, Tennessee but became a traveler when his family moved around the Appalachian region following his father’s job in the car business. They spent time in Greeneville, Knoxville and Chattanooga before Brown settled in Johnson City for the past two years.

While the Brown family may not be all together now, they had a massive influence on who Jack is today. Brothers Ryan, 18, and Cade, 24, now attend Walters State Community College and are on active duty in the U.S. Air Force, respectively. Jack’s parents, Wendy and Craig, were professional dancers on a 1990s show called Club Dance and passed down the rhythm that would carry him into music.

“I’m left-handed and my dad had the notion that everyone who is left-handed is good at some sport. I tried every sport under the sun growing up,” Brown said. He tried football, soccer, baseball and swimming but nothing stuck until he joined the middle school band as a trombone player.

“If I remember correctly, my thinking was that girls don’t like guys who play trombone so I should play the drums,” Brown said. This revelation led him to join the high school drumline, jazz band, concert band and church praise band.

Jack’s brother, Cade, had taken an interest in the banjo but quickly sat it down, making it into a dust collector that sat in the closet.

“I didn’t pay attention to bluegrass until my freshman year computer science class at Soddy Daisy High School. I was sitting there, with my George Strait playlist on, and the Spotify recommendations turned on Trampled by Turtles,” Brown said. “I thought ‘Man this is killer’ and added it to my playlist.”

Progressive bluegrass artists like The Infamous Stringdusters were just the tip of the iceberg for Brown.

Around Christmas of his sophomore year of high school, after badgering his brother for months, Brown walked into his room to see the banjo on a music stand with a note that read “Merry Christmas ya filthy animal.”

Brown’s mom, Wendy, said he could take lessons only if he taught himself for three months. After three months, he was connected with highly awarded musician and esteemed banjo teacher Brandon Green.

Green influenced Brown to consider East Tennessee State University, changing his original idea of pursuing biology and large animal veterinary medicine at the University of Tennessee. “He swindled me, but not in a bad way,” Brown said, who grew up in a family of Tennessee Volunteer fans.

His decision to attend ETSU landed him in the Bluegrass Old-Time and Roots program with a concentration in sound engineering, where he has learned from revered musicians like Grammy winner Trey Hensley.

With the help of ETSU, Brown developed his skills, toured Ireland and became a member of Tennessee Lightning, a southern rock band. He met many of his best friends in the program and enjoys the “Pickin’ Parties” where everyone brings their instrument and jams for hours. “It has been a freaking blast, and I’ve loved every minute of it—sometimes a little too much,” Brown said.

Brown is proficient in drums and banjo but dabbles in guitar, bass, percussion instruments, trombone, mandolin and piano. “Fiddle is one I have always wanted to learn, but it's the bow that gets me,” he said.

Brown’s music career took off when he filled in for a friend with The Shephard’s Folk, a bluegrass gospel band in Western, North Carolina. The band enjoyed his work and hired him full-time, beginning a year-long stint of shows around the Southeast.

In 2024, Brown got a call from Dave Adkins, a legend in the bluegrass industry. “My mom owns a T-shirt and sticker business, and I thought he wanted to order T-shirts,” Brown said, “I said ‘Well, I am assuming you are calling about t-shirts,’ and Dave said ‘What the hell are you talking about?’”

Turns out, Adkins was calling to offer Brown the opportunity to try out for the newly opened banjo player position in Dave Adkins and Mountain Soul, a bluegrass group out of Elkhorn City, Kentucky.

“It was a little rough,” Brown said.

Nonetheless, he was offered the job and began a cross-country tour full of new experiences and good music. “When it comes to big life things, I am bad at keeping secrets. I wanted to tell people so bad,” Brown said.

Adkins and Brown are now going into their second full season of taking bluegrass tunes around the country. He said, “It is a lot of traveling and a lot of burnt gas station coffee, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Jack Brown plays the banjo at the Sam Jam Bluegrass Festival in Piketon, Ohio, with Dave Adkins and Mountain Soul in August 2024.

In the past year, the band has played in and around Tennessee, Maine, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Oregon and California just to name a few.

Live or recorded, Brown can do both. He recently accompanied Lydia Hamby, a mandolin player, vocalist and grad student, on a bluegrass single titled “Albert County Gallows.”

Not only can Brown play music, he has the pipes to accompany it. Two Dozen Roses by Shenandoah is a go-to karaoke tune for him.

You will be hard-pressed to find a time when Brown isn’t practicing, playing or listening to music.

“Keith Whitley is my biggest inspiration without a doubt,” he said.

He noted J.D. Crowe and The New South, Earl Scruggs and Lonesome River Band as influences on his playing. “I find myself imitating Ron Block—he’s played with Alison Krauss for years,” Brown said.

If he could choose anyone to play with, Brown said he would play the banjo with Alison Krauss and Union Station, and the drums with Cody Johnson or 49 Winchester.

While bluegrass is his bread and butter, Brown enjoys listening to southern rock legends like Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers.

Brown doesn’t just have the sound of the South; he has the look too. When he isn't playing, he works at Wiseman’s Western, a locally owned western and work apparel store. “I accidentally talked myself into a job, but a western store has worked out pretty good,” he said.

Free moments are few and far between for Brown. When he does find time, he enjoys hiking and sunsets. “My life sounds like a Tinder bio,” he said. He also enjoys cooking, adding that he makes a “killer” pasta carbonara.

In the future, he hopes to own his family’s cattle farm in Sweetwater, Tennessee.

“I’ve always loved being on the farm. The problem is traveling and being a farmer do not mix,” Brown said. He dreams of turning one of the three barns on the property into a recording studio.

Jack Brown, a homegrown musician and Appalachian local, has never gotten “too big for his britches.” His classic sound and southern charm are a recipe for success, and he will be picking and playing for many years to come because fiddling around is always a good time.