Les pionniers de la musique country de l'Ontario :
Famille Brown

Family Brown, an Ottawa Valley-based group, achieved a level of success that has gone unmatched in the Canadian Country music industry. Their trophy shelf is filled with Juno Awards, “Big Country” and Canadian Country Music awards and CMAOntario’s prestigious Impact Award, among many other accolades. During the 1980s, they were named CCMA’s Group Of The Year on seven occasions.

The Family Brown Act was established in 1968 by Joe Brown. He had performed for years, first as a member of the Nova Scotia-based “Hillbilly Jewels” and later, heading up the Ottawa Valley group, “The Happy Wanderers”. As several of his talented children showed special interest in music, he formed the act with son Barry and daughters Lawanda and Tracey, rounding out the group with guitarist Dave Dennison and drummer Ron Sparling, who also took on managerial duties of what was now billed as “Family Brown”.

Family Brown quickly made their mark with their recordings. A 1971 debut album, “R.R.#2,” was released on the MCA Canada label, followed by a series of albums for RCA Canada, produced in large part by Jack Feeney. Their impressive catalogue of albums delivered 43 singles on the RPM Country Charts, with 24 Top 10 hits and five #1 hits. A large amount of the recorded material came from songs written by Barry Brown, himself a multi-award-winning songwriter. Songs like “Raised On Country Music”, “Jukebox Lover”, “Lovin’ Fool”, “But It’s Cheating”, “Repeat After Me”, “Pioneers”, etc., have become part of the Canadian Country soundtrack.

While all of the Family Brown albums were hit-filled, two of them drew special notice, with the “Raised On Country Music” collection being named CCMA’s Album of the Year for two consecutive years, 1982-83, and the follow-up “Repeat After Me” album garnering Album Of The Year honours in 1984. Songs from these albums earned Family Brown and Barry Brown additional acclaim for Single of the Year and Song Of The Year credits.

Family Brown’s 1985 album, “Feel The Fire”, had an additional attraction. The project was recorded at Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Studio, with Willie Nelson providing his vocal input in a duet with Tracey Brown on the song, “Wouldn’t You Love Us Together Again”.  During their long tenure in the spotlight, Family Brown also hosted their own television show under the banner “Call It Country”, which morphed into “Country Way”, then “Family Brown Country”. They also co-hosted the “Ronnie ‘n The Browns” TV show with popular Country star Ronnie Prophet.

In addition to the time spent in the recording and television studios, Family Brown maintained a heavy tour schedule, bringing them to concert halls and festival events across Canada as well as several overseas tours.

Sadly, on May 30, 1986, “Papa” Joe Brown passed away suddenly after coming off stage at a show date in Chesley, Ontario. While deeply affected by the loss, Papa Joe’s “kids” kept his musical legacy intact by continuing with the act, adding multi-talented Randall Prescott to the front line of the show.

Other musicians who have been part of the Family Brown “band” through the years include such notables as Bob Wingrove, Gary “Spike” Spicer, Bill Carruthers, Dan Paul Rogers, Jon Park-Wheeler, Eddie Bimm, etc.

By 1990, the “Family Brown” act was brought to a close. Barry and Tracey Brown and Tracy’s husband Randall Prescott continued performing under the stage name “Tracey Prescott & Lonesome Daddy,” which was soon re-branded to “Prescott-Brown”. During this time, Tracey Brown also released two solo albums.

The Family Brown were inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997, and were inductees of the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame in 1991.

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