aiden scott browne | bluegrass omagh 2024

I first picked up a guitar at the age of 5, and back then my love for music was all things rock and roll and blues. I loved playing boogie woogie and 12 bar songs that I'd heard from the likes of Chuck Berry and Elvis. As I got older I started to listen to other blues players like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix, and this style of guitar playing was the absolute pinnacle for me. When I moved to Ireland at the age of 13, I was introduced to more roots-type music - Country, folk and bluegrass. This started more love affairs, some slow burners and others were pretty rapid.

My love for bluegrass was one of the rapid ones. Like many others, I watched the "O brother, where art thou?" Movie and I couldn't ignore the goosebumps I was experiencing when I heard the soggy bottom boys perform "Man of constant sorrow". It was bands like the Punch Brothers with players like Chris Eldrige and Noam Pikelny that really inspired me to play real Bluegrass guitar. I then got onto the great Billy Strings and of course Tony Rice. Other guitar players like John Doyle, John Martyn and John Mayer have also been big influences. And of course, the one and only Tommy Emmanuel.

I started playing Bluegrass guitar over lockdown, for the first time in a long time I had the opportunity to really work at my playing. I worked on "dust in a baggie" by Billy Strings relentlessly until I had it as good as I thought I could get it. I was so proud of it that I uploaded it to YouTube. From that video I got some attention from the Strule Arts Centre; who invited me to perform a live stream gig from the venue. With this I put together a Bluegrass fueled set of some of my favourite songs, and I continued to upload to YouTube. My channel is nearly at the coveted 500 subscribers mark and continues to grow.

On the channel I also upload some of my own original songs, a real bluegrass inspired piece of my own is titled "The Money" and I have entered this song into the NPR tiny desk contest for 2024. Fingers crossed I win the competition and get to perform at the famous Tiny Desk in Washington D.C. The song also caught attention with a recording studio in Brooklyn,  who have invited me over to perform the song live and record it onto Vinyl.

I also perform my original songs alongside my band "El Capitan". We have so far reeased an EP with 3 of my own songs, and a full album has been in the works since August of last year. The first single will be released over the next few weeks and I am very excited for people to hear it.

To be able to perform at the Bluegrass Festival in Omagh has been an ambition if mine since I was a little boy, as I have attended the festival many times with my family and been inspired by so many great acts like Mandolin Orange and Viper Central.