Kris Brown

Kris Brown began his career in Cincinnati, where he regularly worked with expatriots of the classic soul bands: James Brown, Kool & the Gang, Ohio Players, Midnight Star, and Gladys Knight, while working his way through college teaching guitar lessons and playing jazz gigs.

He was raised on a hardcore diet of crucial rock and roll records, but introduced to reggae music at the primary school age via Clash and Wailers records at the Hilliard Public Library in Columbus, Ohio. Later, upon joining his first full time working band (Wonderland) in Cincinnati at age 20, Kris found himself in a band designed to play funk covers by the likes of EWF and Sly Stone. The band was fronted by 2 members of Cincinnati's old school reggae illuminati: Daveed Owens and Abraham Cheatham from the band Eastwind. The group quickly morphed into a reggae band with an occasional soul tune. A couple years after that, the 3 found themselves working together again touring the midwest for a couple years in the dancehall/R & B outfit, The Tuff Band.

In the period when he began seriously writing reggae music, Kris ironically receded from the scene (and Ohio) and took full time road work for a year with a country cover band. In 1996 his first reggae tape "The Kris Brown Project" was released (sorry ladies, out of print). Upon returning to town, Kris fronted a jump/swing band and played in Cincinnati avant hip hop supergroup Apogee, with Mr. Dibbs, Dose One, and Why?

The year 2000 came in with a conscious decision to shift from playing reggae on off time to getting a group together. A relocation to Austin followed in 2001. While getting the pilot version of Mr Brown (Kris Brown's Family Sauce) going, Kris played in the groups of Shelley King, Patrice Pike, and Cyril Neville.

Kris has played music with Fred Hersch, Monk Boudreaux, The Subdudes, Henry Butler, Ivan Neville, Frank Lowe, Anders Osbourne, and Cyril Neville. He is endorsed by RKS Guitars. He wishes to send special thanks out to all DJs who play great music, people who take their children to libraries, the Soka Gakkai International, and everybody else who is trying to make the world a better place.