Alan Brown was born in Dundee and since 1970 has lived near Aberfeldy in the heart of Scotland where he is a full-time entertainer - a singer, musician, writer, broadcaster, compere, public speaker and journalist.
He has twice won the prestigious Scottish Folk Directory Songwriter Contest and released two albums of his own songs, which have been local best-sellers, and plays tenor banjo/guitar and acts as dance caller and compere for several ceilidh bands.
His play on the life of Robert Louis Stevenson, The Canary-Bird and King Lear, was directed by the legendary Scots playwright W Gordon Smith at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in Edinburgh in 1986 and he has had other works performed at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Glasgow’s Tron Theatre, the MacRobert Centre, Stirling and Cumbernauld Theatre.
He has published articles, mostly on music and musicians, in magazines in Scotland, Ireland, England, the USA and Canada and had work published in Fair Upon Tay - an anthology of Scots song, verse and prose used in schools. He writes a monthly music column Brown’s Around in Highland Perthshire’s news magazine Comment.
He has been a producer/presenter with Heartland FM since its beginnings in 1992 and his weekly programme Scene Around won Station Awards and welcomed musical guests from all over the world. His current programme Broadband (Sundays 1-3 pm) celebrates 20th Century popular music. He has broadcast also on BBC Radio Scotland, Clare FM (Ireland) and Radio Tay.
He has presented In-Concert series for radio broadcast as well as outdoor events such as Highland Games and Gala Days and for the past eleven years has compered the very popular outdoor Highland Nights held each week in Pitlochry.
He is much in demand on the Burns Supper circuit, whether singing, addressing the haggis, performing his all-action Tam o’ Shanter, or proposing The Immortal Memory in hotels, village halls, McDiarmid Park in Perth for St Johnstone FC and Northwood Country Club, Dallas, Texas for the Caledonian Society.
Each summer in the splendid setting of 16th Century Castle Menzies by Aberfeldy he presents his one-man show This is Scotland … and You’re Welcome To It!, an evening of music and comedy which takes an affectionate but irreverent look at his native land.
Recent engagements have included playing for 100 diners at a local hotel on Hogmanay; entertaining coach parties; introducing students from the USA to Scottish dance and song; compering ceilidhs and Pitlochry’s famous Highland Nights; playing cupid with romantic music for an intimate Valentine’s Night dinner; honouring the immortal bard at Burns Suppers; performing in folk clubs in rural Pennsylvania; providing the cabaret for a national golf day; entertaining at staff dinner dances and parties; introducing the bride and groom’s families at a pre-wedding reception; compering musical events at Blair Castle, Stirling Castle and Edinburgh‘s Signet Library and - honest! - testing out-of-office skills for the staff of a multinational company with ceilidh dancing at the top of Drummond Hill!