Muzzie Braun, Where Music Lives

For the past 36 years Muzzie Braun has lived along Slate Creek in the White Cloud Mountains of central  Idaho, where  wolves, mountain lions and bears outnumber people by a wide margin. Despite – or perhaps because of – its extreme isolation,  Braun has created a  musical life that extends far beyond his mountain home. He tried his hand at Nashville, but says, “either I didn’t get them or they didn’t get me.” But his father was a musician, “so I knew it could be done.” In the 70s and 80s he performed with his brothers Gary and Billy as the Braun Brothers. He created  a band with his four sons, Muzzie and the Boys, which played  on the Late Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno.  And he has recorded a dozen albums. Muzzie organizes and plays the annual Braun Brothers Reunion, a 3-day music festival in Challis, Idaho, which headlines national recording artists, including Reckless Kelly, fronted by two of his sons. “We were lucky enough to find a special place where we could raise our family, I could write my music and conduct business from the comfort of our home.”

More images from the series "Where Music Lives" can be viewed at my website under Projects.