Greg Brown

This friendly recording sounds like Greg Brown stepped out on the back porch with his wife, Iris DeMent, daughters Constie and Pieta and longtime picking partner Bo Ramsey to sing a batch of traditional tunes together. Fans who love Brown for his brilliant songwriting will find another side of him emphasized here, the honey-voiced baritone who can take a song like “Old Smokey” or “Green Grows the Laurel,” dig down into it and bring out the poetry. The recording feels like family, with DeMent providing background vocals on the lovely “Jacob’s Ladder,” Pieta joining him on “Railroad Bill” and “I Never Will Marry,” and Constie on “Ain’t No One Like You,” the only tune on the album Brown himself wrote. You haven’t really heard “Who Killed Cock Robin” until you hear Greg Brown sing it.Greg Brown appears in concert with Pieta Brown and Bo Ramsey tonight (Thursday, Sept. 23) at 6:30 p.m. at Cedar Grove in Bidwell Park.