Erica Brown’s Big Mama Thornton Project

 

Miss Erica Brown is a Singer, Songwriter, Recording Artist, Actress, Activist and Media Personality based in Denver, Colorado.

 

From her beginnings as a child of the Civil Rights Era of the 60’s in Southeast Missouri where her family picked and chopped cotton to survive, Erica has had a long and stellar career as a Blues Vocalist.  She has performed with many of the greats in Blues and Soul, including BB King, Al Green, Delbert McClinton, Bob Margolin, Miss Blues, and many others.  Her voice has taken her all over the world!  

 

In 2013, Erica, as a member of Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band, won 3rd Place Honors in the International Blues Challenge sponsored by the Blues Foundation, securing that honor competing against over two hundred band entrants from all over the world, in an elimination-style competition; 

 

In 2016, Erica appeared as a double-page photo spread in the Smithsonian Magazine’s historic companion issue coinciding with the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC);

 

Erica has been awarded Colorado’s Historic Five Points Jazz Festival™’s Tribute Award for significant and lasting contributions to African-American music in Colorado and Nationally;  

In 2019 Erica was a recipient of The Colorado Blues Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award; 

 

Erica contributed to a musical effort in 2020 to support the Colorado Symphony’s Play On Recovery Fund. With Erica on vocals, the recording featured select members of the award-winning Colorado Symphony, including Concertmistress Yumi Hwang-Williams; 

 

In 2021, Erica was honored with inclusion in the International Book Series Phenomenon, Chicken Soup for the Soul, with a chapter written by her in their newest publication “I’m Speaking Now: Black Women Share Their Truth in 101 Stories of Love, Courage and Hope”. 

 

In late 2021, Erica was tapped by Chris Anthony, Founder and Director of the Worldwide Chris Anthony Youth Initiative Program to collaborate with the Program to provide music educational experiences, and tools to enhance the classroom experience.  

 

In 2022, Erica worked with PBS12 as on-air talent, and contributed to on air Pledge Drives for bands such as Brit Floyd at Red Rocks, and International Dance Troupe Shen Yun, and live correspondence from prestigious events such as the 2022 Denver Juneteenth Festival in Historic Five Points, Colorado;

 

Also, 2022 saw the release of the Music Project “Moja: A Music Saga”, by 3-time Grammy Winner Bobby Rush, in which Erica has contributing vocals.  This effort garnered first-round Grammy consideration!

 

In 2023, Erica had the honor of co-emceeing the St. Jude Research Hospital Gala, alongside Fox 31/Channel 2 News Anchor Vicente Arenas, raising funds to fight childhood diseases; 

 

In early 2024, Erica co-created and was featured in a Rocky Mountain PBS tribute to the great Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, and a live set from that collaboration will be released with KUVO Radio;

 

Also in 2024, Erica will soon release her own CD Project entitled “Willie Mae Sings Willie Mae”, a Tribute to Blues Pioneer the great Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton on Wolf Den Records!