Iowa Troubadour

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Apart from that song, the album will include time-tested numbers like ?On Top of Old Smokey? and ?Pretty Polly??songs, he says, ?that a lot of people have heard, and maybe they haven?t heard all the pretty verses.?

?I just always loved those old songs, and I find myself going back to them,? he explains. ?They?ve got beautiful melodies, and they?re fun to sing. A lot of them are models of good storytelling?I think one reason those folk songs last is that people can find their own story in there somewhere.?

In late summer Red House Records, the label co-founded by Brown and his artistic home for the last 20 years, will release a career retrospective CD. The singer is taking a hands-off approach to the project, saying he has no clue what songs will be on it.

Brown, 52, says he hopes these tributes and retrospectives don?t mean he should wrap up his career. He continues to write new material and tour the country, playing in venues that range from restored movie theaters to folk clubs to hole-in-the-wall ?joints,? as he calls them.

He?s got a story for every town, and when he hears that his autographed photo was spotted in a joint in Talkeetna, Alaska, he tells of a burly stranger there who gave him three fresh-killed ptarmigan as a token of appreciation for his music.

Brown has relaxed his touring pace and his life now is centered at a newly built home on his grandparents? farm and his recent out-of-the-blue marriage to DeMent. He declines to discuss their union last November 21 in Kansas City, Missouri, but seems calm and content while speaking from their Iowa hideaway, with pots and dishes clanking in the background as DeMent prepares a Saturday-morning breakfast. The man who once sang ?gonna go on down to Hacklebarney and have me some fun? seems to have done just that.

Keith Goetzman is a contributing editor of Utne.

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