I remember the first time I saw and heard Logan Brown. He was a confident, yet unassuming character, considering the fact that he was about to give us a funky, rhythmically complex and light hearted performance. The percussiveness of his playing was astounding as it seemed like this was what he had been doing since he was born. He was happy to be on stage to take people down a different path. It was sort of like those moments when you just say to yourself, "Why is this master playing on our little stage?" Well, he did and he will again on Friday, January 31 from 5-8pm at The Cove. Details and reservations here: web link

Seamus Cowan: Good to have you coming back to The Cove. It’s been a while. A hiatus, if you will. Where in the world did you develop your crazy style of playing music? There must have been some strong inspiration, early on!

Logan Brown: Thanks buddy, it's good to be back! Don't call it a comeback because… I'm an obscure musician from Kingston, so no one knows who I am! I started playing in death metal, hard rock and grunge bands when I was in high school and became obsessed with the idea of advancing as quickly as possible in my ability to uh… play as quickly as possible. Like anyone else who hears Stevie Wonder for the first time however, I learned the power of groove in conjunction with technical ability and shifted my "I'm doing it and doing it now" mentality less with my playing, to more with my desire to be onstage. Easiest way to do that was to become a solo acoustic performer, but my love of "bands" is why I play the way I do, learning music and faithfully trying to replicate what I hear on record unintentionally ends up being a semi-original arrangement.

Q: Little do people really know, music is such a powerful connection for the performer and the player. What have you found connects you the most with your listeners?

Logan: I'll be completely honest and then lie my butt off in the next question. I find that more than just playing songs, people recognize or have a strong memory connected to humour, so talking seems to be where I develop the deepest connection onstage. I think of my favourite performers like Dave Matthews, Bruce Cockburn, Tommy Emmanuel, Charlie Hunter etc. and I find one's ability to take the art seriously but themselves not so much to be one of my favourite qualities in a performer. As weird as some of the guitar gymnastics can get or whatever, randomly calling out audience members in between or during songs has been something that helps break down the audience-to-performer barrier and gets everyone involved in the show, whether I'm the focus or a nice background piece with dinner. If I get rebooked nowadays, my most common compliment is "we love that you talk to the crowd during shows."

Q: I’m sure your style has changed a bit over the years, but what is your favourite thing to channel? You have so much depth in how you play?

Logan: I love playing as many parts of a song you don't expect to hear in a solo acoustic performance. Harmonizing with the melody line on my guitar if I'm playing a Doobie Brothers song like "It Keeps You Running," playing the bass, drums and guitar part while singing "Billie Jean," doing the synth hook in Terrence Trent D'Arby's "Wishing Well", etc. The acoustic guitar has such a low dynamic ceiling that the challenge of fitting as much of the original performance into something conducive to a solo arrangement is what I find the most rewarding.

Q: I know that you have a high level of confidence as you diverted from music performance to live standup. What on earth lead you down that path and do you continue to incorporate the giggles during you music shows now?

Logan: You're gonna run out of ink for this answer. Standup was always my first love, it just seemed like some sort of wizardry being able to captivate an audience with your voice for an hour by telling stories. Even now, I cheat by being a musical comedian. Music, more specifically the guitar, was something I could at least wrap my head around starting from zero and being able to practice it on my own time until I was ready to bring it to a stage setting. I've always tried to be funny during my gigs. With music being my full-time gig, after a show I wouldn't want to spend an hour plus in the car listening to music again! My ears needed a break, so stand up albums and comedy podcasts really lit the fire under me to try stand up comedy. The world shutting down for a year gave me the opportunity to do some soul searching and find out what I was truly passionate about so I was able to make the pivot once the world opened back up!

Q: I like to think that you are a true original! I think it is so refreshing to have young talent like you continuing to push boundaries and show people what dedication to your craft can result in. What’s the next stage in the evolution of Logan Brown?

Logan: I'm doing the practice work for album/special number 2 right now! I've been very fortunate with my last comedy album (Black Man, White Privilege) doing decent enough numbers on SiriusXM that I could set some money aside with the desire to record/film a show in early 2026 with the act I've been working on the last few months. I'm always writing new comedy tunes and bits so if something isn't cutting the mustard, I can swap it out. I'm very proud of the first record but the direction of this new material has me enjoying the freedom of improvisation a little bit more so when it's tight enough to record a solid 30-40 minutes (an hour long comedy special? I have ADHD baby ain't nobody got time for that), I'll pull the trigger on that! I'm also the Paul Shaffer/Andy Richter hybrid for an adults only puppet/talk show I do with my buddy Bobby Knauff, so we're going to be doing a couple road dates with that in 2025! Posted: Jan 21, 2025 Originally Published: Jan 19, 2025