"I was born in an elevator in El Paso...in the middle of a roarin' flood...."
Regan Brown got her first guitar in 1967--a Sears Silvertone that cost $12--and always thought of herself as a writer and word geek, but the two interests didn't merge into songwriting until she returned to her native Texas in the late 90s. She wrote her first song two hours after she wrecked a motorcycle 15 minutes into a motorcycle safety training course. The world was spared another middle-aged biker babe, but a late-blooming songwriter was born that day.
Encouraged by the reception to that first, tune, Regan went on to write more songs, play better guitars, and learn more chords. She played her first (very nervous) set of orginal music at Ross' Old Austin Cafe in 1999. Since then, influences and inspirations have included Wednesday night Song Circles at Kent Finlay's legendary Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos, UT songwriting workshops with Sandy Knox, Kerrville Song School, Austin Songwriter Group workshops, and playing showcases and open mics around Austin and the Texas Hill Country.Regan's song "Stranded Here In Oz" won first place in the Songs About Feeling Blue" song contest category in the 2005 Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. The tune poses the question: What would have happened if Dorothy had not been able to return to Kansas and got stranded in Oz? Hill Country songbird Andrea Campise and her band Magnolia have recorded the song, as well as a swing tune penned by Regan: "When the Angels Designed You for Me." A former cohost of the popular 290 Friday Open Mic at 290 Bar & Grill, Regan is currently writing songs to accompany the March 2009 production of Marjorie Brody's play, In the Underside.
Regan is also the author of The Woman's Way: Celebrating Life After 40, an Andrews McMeel gift book that's been translated into Spanish and Portuguese.