NPR broadcaster also loves - and plays - music

Paul Brown makes himself heard. And people keep listening when he does.

These are the constants in a rich and varied life that keeps him moving between two homes and two principal interests. One interest is broadcasting, which Brown does as a newscaster/reporter for NPR in Washington, D.C.; the other is old-time music, which he has played since childhood on banjo, fiddle and guitar.

One of Brown’s homes is in Washington. The other is in Winston-Salem - where on Tuesday, he will play fiddle in the Mostly Mountain Boys, the band accompanying the next Fiddle and Bow Society’s contra-dance at the Vintage Theatre.

“On balance, it’s a pretty interesting way to live,“ Brown said - even if means that he and his wife, Terri McMurray, are apart about half the time. McMurray, who teaches high-school chemistry and physics at UNC School of the Arts, will also be playing in the Mountain Boys band at the contra-dance.

Brown said that “a lot of couples do the same thing that Terri and I do,“ including those in Congress and academia.

“We aren’t together every day,“ he said. “When we’re really focusing on our work, we’re able to. When we are together, we really devote time to one another; it’s very concentrated.“

Brown has certainly been able to focus on his work. He also plays at festivals around the country and has been recorded several times. He has been all over southwestern Virginia and Northwest North Carolina, collecting and documenting traditional music over many years.

At NPR, Brown keeps up with what the network describes as “an ever-changing combination of on-air, reporting, editing, producing, and directing duties,“ starting his day as early as 2:30 a.m. and as late as 2 p.m. On Thursdays and Fridays, he delivers the newscasts at the top of the hour in Washington during NPR’s Morning Edition. To do that, he arrives at work at 2:30 a.m. to put in several hours researching and writing what he calls “the story of the day, through all of the lead stories” or “how your world looks today, leaving people plenty of room to form their own images and make their own conclusions.“

Music, incidentally, is not far from Brown’s mind as he works on these broadcasts. He said it keeps him mindful that the kind of quality phrasing, rhythm and other elements of an effective performance share much in common with those of a well-produced newscast, which “makes people feel at ease and concentrate on the story.“

Brown leads the life he does now for reasons that are both explicable and mysterious.

“I have an apprentice personality,“ he said.

When Brown was at WFDD, for example, he wanted to be the “best NPR-quality reporter” he could be.

“I simply started cold-calling the editors in Washington and asking them if I could do stories,“ he said. “These were the most skilled people I could find. I felt I could put myself through ‘school’ by learning from the best people in the field.“

When he began collecting music in the South, he learned about it “directly” from its performers. One of these musicians was the late Tommy Jarrell. Brown studied with Jarrell under an NEA Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant.

Brown took an unusual route to the region’s old-time music, which began not in the South but in New York State of his childhood. His mother taught him songs she had picked up every summer visiting relatives on a former plantation farm near Lynchburg.

“Things out of the ordinary tended to interest her,“ Brown said. “She was pulling me toward the oddest things she could find; in her case, this meant rural Southern music and music of minorities…. She loved the melodies. She loved the words. They were a direct expression of human emotions.“

Brown came to feel the same way. He just can’t tell you why.

“That is the unanswerable question,“ he said. “Why does anybody really love anything?“

- Ken Keuffel writes for the Winston-Salem Journal.