Unavailable on all formats since the early 2000s, Alison Brown’s GRAMMY-nominated debut album SIMPLE PLEASURES was a leap forward for Scruggs-rooted banjo playing when it was first released in 1990. This led to her immediate recognition as a banjo pioneer and to her win in 1991 of the Banjo Player of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association (the first female to win an Instrumentalist of the Year award). For the 2024 reissue, the original 8-track, 1″ multitrack tapes were transferred at a resolution of 192kHz/36-bit, and remixed and mastered by Matt Coles at Compass Sound Studio in Nashville.

The album was produced in 1989 by acoustic music icon and frequent Jerry Garcia cohort David Grisman (architect of “Dawg Music,” the jazz-influenced breakout fringe of the bluegrass genre) and recorded with a cast of all-star musicians at Dawg Studio in Marin, CA. Players on the sessions included Alison Krauss (fiddle), David Grisman (mandolin), Mike Marshall (guitar, fiddle, mandolin), Matt Eakle (flute), Joe Craven (percussion) and Jim Kerwin (bass). The album’s 12 tunes were all written by Alison and include the first recorded versions of some of her most well-known compositions, including “Mambo Banjo,” “Leaving Cottondale,” and “Weetabix.” Includes three previously unreleased demos on Download card.