The Edmonton Muse
Over A Beer With
Laurie Brown of Porch Swing Entertainment
-Jazz Matthews-
I have been trying to catch up with Laurie Brown for some time. Her business schedule is one that many of us would like to have, especially in this economy. Trying to balance that with family, friends and the unexpected that comes up, has been an experience all on its own. As we would normally chat over an adult beverage, this Sunday morning puts us at our local Timmies, me with a double, double and Laurie with two cream.
Porch Swing Entertainment was born both out of necessity and accident. Brown’s background in music has her still singing with a local quartet, when she can, but it led her to create LJB Management and specialize in grant writing and mentoring up can coming artists. An opportunity to attend a Toronto based program, Canada’s Music Incubator, quickly turned her focus to getting her ducks in the proverbial row, then moving on to help her artists do the same. As she puts it, it was hard to teach others to run their business, when hers was requiring attention. After a successful completion of the course, she was looking to rebrand LJB when her aunt hit on the perfect name. Brown’s porch swing is her favorite place to be, when she can and she completes much of her daylight hours work there. So now, Stony Plain has Porch Swing Entertainment and Stony Plain is where she plans to stay.
The transition to Porch Swing, using the acronym, PSE, was something that required a refocus as well as getting the house in order. Having always been one to say “yes” to those looking for advice and help, including me, she found that that refocus would be one of the pieces of the puzzle. Though she retains good relationships with all her previous clients, PSE has its main focus on a core group of four, that receive the full management service. They include, Sydney Mae, The Doll Sisters, as of May first, Don Amero and Edmonton native, Adam Gregory. Yes, that Adam Gregory. Brown and PSE have been working with Gregory for the last two years behind the scenes and he too has now rebranded and is getting ready to release new music in 2017. Even with the focus on the core group, the addition of Creative Director Stephanie Bakker and artist turned Tour Consultant, Joal Kamps, has allowed Brown to continue the work she loves, consulting and helping new artists with the needs they have at any particular time.
Travel is a big part of Brown’s work and recent trips to Calgary, Saskatoon, Toronto and even Kansas City have her looking for some home time. A recent trip planned for the UK will be put on hold to a future date as she looks to clean up her desk. Still, the grass will not grow beneath her feet, as Calgary will still be calling in order to touch base with her team who are based there and friends who are on her roster. Those friends have grown from her client base as she has the family philosophy, finding it difficult, if not impossible to consider her clients family first.
The entire core group of PSE have a lot going on this year; Sydney Mae, only just sixteen, is writing a lot and recently found that the folk side of music is calling her. She is taking her country roots and looking to infuse her writing on the sister genre of folk. The Doll Sisters have just finished the Canada Music Incubator Program for Artists and are off to conquer the country world, having just played BVJ’s Small Town Saturday Night in La Glace, Alberta with Gord Bamford among others. Just signed JUNO nominee Don Amero, is recording his PSE debut in Saskatoon and as previously mentioned, Adam Gregory has new music and local shows including Big Valley Jamboree and Stony Plain’s Summer Sessions.
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