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Would you retire to a rural mining ghost town? Pearce, Arizona doesn’t have a supermarket or a movie theater, but it has musicians Donna and Gary Brown for entertainment. The couple grew up in Chicago; formed a band when they were young; got married and had long non-musical careers while living in Colorado; had their band rediscovered, put out an album, and toured while they were in their sixties; retired and traveled the country in an RV; and finally settled down by purchasing a home in Pearce, Arizona. Find out more about the Brown’s mind-blowing journey to a rural town in Arizona on Episode 72 of Retire There with Gil & Gene.
Donna F. Brown’s memoir is Finding Medusa: The Making of an Unlikely Rock Star.
Donna’s suspenseful murder mystery is One Moonlit Night.
Author
Donna F. Brown is an author, musician, certified yoga teacher (including chair yoga), mime, and former RN with over 35 years of nursing experience. She is also an avid runner, hiker, cross country skier, and has climbed Mount Rainier in Washington, Mount Hood in Oregon, and 22 of 54 14,000 foot peaks in Colorado.
It is often said if you don’t pursue your dreams when you are young, you will never have that opportunity again. That has not been the case for Donna and Gary Brown. In the summer of 1973, Donna, a young guitar player, went to check out a band that practiced in a garage a couple of miles from her childhood home in Chicago. There she met Gary (the guitar player who Donna eventually married). Donna and Gary formed an immediate connection, fast becoming collaborators, and decided to start a new band. Donna being a fan of mythology, they called their new group Medusa. In 1975, the band recorded a few songs and released a 45 record. [For you youngins out there, a 45 has only two songs on it]. Not long after those recording sessions, Donna headed off to Truman college to become a registered nurse. That was it for the band, or so they thought!
In February of 2012, a phone call changed their lives and gave them a second chance. While still working as a nurse in Colorado, Donna received a phone call from a Chicago record Label. It turned out that someone had Found a copy of Medusa’s 1975 45 record and given it to someone at the record label. The record label asked if Medusa had any more songs. Luckily, one of the band members had saved the tapes in his attic. …
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Gary Brown was born and raised in Chicago. He worked in the printing industry from age 19 to age 63, when he retired. His main hobbies are playing guitar and photography. Gary’s music career began when he cajoled his mom into purchasing a General Electric guitar which worked with the General Electric stereo which he received for Christmas.
