1960's

   Chris Stovall Brown has been playing music since the age of six when his parents came home with a set of bongo drums, which he taught himself to play in a matter of days. At the age of eight, his elementary school offered him the opportunity to study drums and he grabbed it. Acquiring a drum a year for Christmas, Chris was soon playing with neighborhood bands and actually did his first gigging as a drummer at the tender age of 13. Playing in both jazz, rock and wedding bands helped him to gain a wealth of expertise in various styles of music. Picking up the harp at the age of 11, after a sax player left it at rehearsal, his attention was now diverted to two instruments and he started spending his allowance and gig money on blues records (an obsession that continues to this day). Somewhere around the age of 13, he also started playing acoustic guitar to get the blues sounds he was hearing in his head. It was also during this time, around 1966, that his obsession for listening to his mother's transistor radio late at night turned him on to the sounds of John R and Ernie's Record Mart out of Nashville. Taking advantage of Ernie's record specials that were being advertised on the radio, led Chris to expand his ever growing record collection. Adding banjo, mandolin, lap steel and resonator guitar to his arsenal of instruments made him decide that he wanted to quit playing drums, and in 1969 he started to concentrate on harp and guitar as his main instruments. Going to both the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals as well as the original Boston Tea Party (53 Berkeley Street) and Joe’s Place (Inman Square) exposed him to the live blues sounds of such influences as B.B. KING, ALBERT KING, GEORGE HARMONICA SMITH, BIG MAMA THORNTON and MUDDY WATERS among others. His record collecting urges started him collecting soul and R and B records as well as the blues material he was already stock piling.

1970's

   The summer of 1970, while still in the 11th grade, found CSB at the 2nd Ann Arbor Blues Festival where he was further exposed to great influences like PAPA LIGHTFOOT, JUNIOR PARKER, SON HOUSE, HOUND DOG TAYLOR, BUDDY GUY and JUNIOR WELLS. In 1971 he had an opportunity to play with both BIG MAMA THORNTON as well as his harp idol, GEORGE HARMONICA SMITH. When they finished playing, GEORGE searched Chris out in the crowd and asked him if he wanted to come out to Los Angeles to be his protege. Regretfully, he declined the offer. Now leading bands under the name of Stovall Brown Blues Band, Chris did many gigs at colleges, coffee houses and clubs around the New England Area. Finally, in 1972 he hooked up with the Jasper Cooke Band in Boston, a blues-rock band that was managed by Robin Hemingway, who was T-Bone Walker's manager at the time. They did several gigs with T-Bone and even opened for him at The Jazz Workshop. He stayed with that band until March of 1973, at which point he returned to R.I. to reform STOVALL BROWN BAND. They continued to play throughout New England opening for such luminaries as James Cotton, Barry Goldberg and Connecticut's Wildweeds with future N.R.B.Q. member Al Anderson. During the summer of 1974, Chris joined up with former Muddy Water's sideman, Luther Georgia Boy Shakey Snake Johnson and traveled extensively throughout the East Coast and Canada with him for the next year and a half. Then leaving the band over a dispute over finances, he once again re-formed Stovall Brown Band with predominantly Connecticut-based musicians. Included in this legendary lineup were the likes of Jeff Pevar, currently playing with Crosby-Stills-Nash, Mike Ruff-Former music director for Chaka Kahn as well as the Grammy Awards house band and Greg "Carrot" Baril, of the Shaboo All-Stars. In 1976, the band opened for B.B. KING and BOBBY BLUE BLAND. This version of Stovall Brown Band toured the Northeast extensively before being dissolved in 1977. At this point, Chris Stovall Brown decided to work with legendary East Coast R and B giant, FATMAN WILSON. He stayed with Fatman Wilson and The Sliders until Fatman's death in 1977 and then reformed STOVALL BROWN BAND once again. Playing the Eastern Seaboard continuously for the next couple of years, he moved to Rochester, NY and continued playing with Rochester as a home base.