Roots and blues, melodic sensibility, and honest emotion…

 

Based in Minnesota, with roots in Tennessee, 

Chastity Brown grew up surrounded by country and soul music. While her roots are in the gospel church and blues of her childhood, she has bloomed in Minneapolis, her home of 20 years, expanding her sound to incorporate the musical sounds of the city that would eventually land her at home on stage with Prince’s New Power Generation. She has been featured in NPR’s “Favorite Sessions,” CMT, American Songwriter, the London Times and Paste Magazine and has shared the stage with artists as diverse as Ani Difranco, Andrea Gibson, Indigo Girls and Van Morrison.
 
Between writing sessions she’s been vibing to chilled out, forward thinking artists like Leon Bridges, H.E.R., SZA, and like always, Nina Simone. Like them, she expands beyond genre and her folk/roots history to encompass her appreciation of all Black American musical art forms. Chastity reflects, “Sometimes I think about Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey which makes me feel so closely connected, in a pure, undeviating lineage, to the heritage of being a Black, queer blues woman.”

 

“brooding soul eloquence… and folk-infected naturalness.”  – NPR