Nora Brown - Cinnamon Tree (2019)

At thirteen years old, musician Nora Brown has released her debut album Cinnamon Tree, recorded under the guidance of legendary musician Alice Gerrard at an old farmhouse turned studio — Studio 808a in Floyd, Virginia. The record brings together songs, spoken stories, and instrumental pieces that feel poignant and transformative, inviting listeners to let this old, "outsider" music into their present-day lives alongside whatever plays on the radio or scrolls across the news. On several tracks, Nora is joined by award-winning fiddler Stephanie Coleman.

The repertoire didn't come from songbooks but from a living tradition: Nora learned these pieces by visiting elder musicians in her community and studying old records and field recordings held in archival collections. Noted American folk music chronicler John Cohen observed a rare intensity in her playing for someone so young — as though the music simply washes over her — and a voice capable of singing about experiences far beyond her years: old Appalachian songs recounting a harder, more difficult way of life.

The album is available both as a digital download and on vinyl, in a limited first edition of 500 signed and numbered copies with custom letterpress jackets, pressed at the storied Third Man Pressing in Detroit.

Tracklist:
1-1 Nora Brown - Buck Creek Girls [2:04]
1-2 Nora Brown - Hop Light Ladies [2:09]
1-3 Nora Brown - Hills of Mexico [4:11]
1-4 Nora Brown - Cumberland Gap [1:54]
1-5 Nora Brown - Darling Cora [4:38]
1-6 Nora Brown - Last Chance [2:44]
1-7 Nora Brown - East Virginia [4:33]
1-8 Nora Brown - John Brown's Dream [3:03]
1-9 Nora Brown - Jay Gould's Daughter [3:56]
1-10 Nora Brown - Old Horse and Buggy [2:13]
1-11 Nora Brown - Shady Grove - Beautiful Doll [5:33]