“For my money, HCB is one of the best lyricists – and poets – in the country. His work at the keyboards is poetry too.” — Steven Heighton

“Pacem (1) is one of those albums that works on the listener from the inside out. The more I listen, the more I am astonished by its depth and intricacy... masterfully constructed songs, stream of consciousness epic ballads, and a piano instrumental where Brown gently demonstrates his virtuoso talents and interpretive depth.” — Huffington Post

Chris has been receiving information from an unknown source ever since his “kidney operation” at age six months. He considers himself more or less cellular antennae, and feels the clavinet was removed from him during the original surgery.

Music has been his least disruptive form of stellar communion – predating his days as a St. Michael’s choirboy in Toronto, he would transcribe the Irish Rovers, Sly Stone, songs by The Clash and Booker T and the MGs. Later, he was transformed by Floyd Cramer’s version of Fire and Rain.

Beyond the daily tasks of preparation, Chris has recorded his own music, and played (usually organ, piano and clavinet – but sometimes trombone, tuba or other things) for many others. He continues to explore the great nervous system with his doctor, Kate Fenner.

Often distressed by the non-harmonic functions of greed, fear and obedience, Chris finds charity hockey games great places to discuss class wars and the more subtle enforcement methods over beers.

His one allergy is to sincerity contests.

A Program Of Music On Clavinet

This album is the first in a trilogy of solo projects, each recorded on a single instrument. All sounds on this album emanate from the clav or my voice.

I bought my first Hohner Clavinet D6 at Richmond's Trading Post in Toronto when I was 16. It began a lifelong love affair with the instrument that accelerated when Hugh Marsh gave me my first Clavinet-Pianet Duo while I was with the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. I would busk with it in Toronto and NYC. When Kate and I began touring as a duo, it was often the only keyboard I would take.

The four cover songs on this record (Whole Of The Moon, Nautical Disaster, Broken Heart and Bold As Love) each carry deep relevance in my musical life. Playing on the street I would break songs down into clav arrangements like the ones captured on this record.

The Brooklyn Moon was one of the places I'd haul the clav to play original works in progress, often with Kate, as we were forming our writing. You can express so many ways on the instrument, it's at home in poetry and rhythm sections the same.

I'm not certain if there is another album that's exclusively clavinet. If you find one, do let me know.

— Hugh Christopher "Shuggie" Brown, Wolfe Island, November 2026

Songwriter, producer, bandleader, and sideman, Hugh Christopher Brown has toured and recorded with artists across genres from BB King and The Tragically Hip to DJ Logic and Tom Jones.

Pacem 2: Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack "1968" picks up where Brown’s writing left off (before the pandemic saw him growing his prison arts program, Pros and Cons, into a national charity, and building the Hotel Wolfe Island into an arts facility supporting rural economy) — bringing lifelong themes and musical relationships into focus in 11 original works, and a soulful cover of Fred Neil’s Dolphins.

Brown mirrors present-day events in the turbulent episodes of 1968, drawing parallels with the violence, disinformation and drastic efforts of authoritarian regression.

“Every time I look at ’68 — which was the year of my birth — the upheaval and violent resistance to change is overwhelming. The instrumental which opens the album is both a processional and an elegy — Dr. King, RFK, the Catonsville 9, state murders of Black Panthers, the Chicago 7, Prague Spring, Berlin and Paris movements… it just goes on… the year always felt heavy, and currently instructive.”

The reflection finds sound in an album not confined by genre. Piano instrumentals like 1968 and Beautiful Place sit side by side with pop songs like Your Love, Guilty and the poetic collage of Prometheus. 61 minutes of music include contributions from major figures in Brown’s many musical circles: lifelong collaborator Kate Fenner, Bourbon Tabernacle Choir bandmates Chris Miller and Jason Mercer (Ron Sexsmith, Ani DiFranco), Tony Scherr (Norah Jones, Bill Frisell), Michael Blake (Lounge Lizards), Wolfe Islanders Sarah McDermott and Pete Bowers, and David Corley, The Holmes Brothers, Rosanna Goodman, Alison Russell, J.T. Lindsay, and emerging young Somali artist, Issa 4F, all making appearances.