Kevin Browning

Kevin Thomas Browning (born September 19, 1978) manages creative and business development for Umphrey's McGee, the Chicago-based “Improg” band which has gained notoriety for merging its original style of progressive rock with improvisational techniques. Browning began his 15-year career with UM as the band's live Front of House and studio engineer, and has produced or co-produced hundreds of the band's live releases, studio albums, and DVDs. He has helped to create many of the band's signature events, brand and media strategies, and fan experiences.

Browning has been Umphrey's McGee's sound engineer, or “sound caresser”, since the band's formation in December 1997. Kevin's first attempt at mixing sound dates back to March 1998 as a freshman at the University of Notre Dame. During the previous semester in the fall of 1997, Browning recalls attending a house party hosted by a neighbor of his brother Christian. Kevin heard faint sounds of Phish's Bathtub Gin being covered by the house band in the basement. Browning proceeded to follow the sound into the basement. It was there he first encountered then Tashi Station founders guitarist/vocalist Brendan Bayliss and bassist Ryan Stasik. After being captured by Tashi Station's musical stylings long into that night, Browning found himself at nearly every Tashi show from that point forward.

In March 1998, Bayliss and Browning met for a sandwich at the local Blimpie restaurant. During the meal, Bayliss taught Browning how to use the PA system that Umphrey's was using at the time, a simple 8-channel Crate mixer with adjustable gain, bass, and treble only. As Browning had no prior mixing experience, Bayliss's lesson was put into layman's terms by showing which channel, for example, to kill in case of microphone feedback.

The origin of the Umphrey's-specific expression “Jimmy Stewart” began in a reception hall the band played named after the late actor. It has since become a staple of Umphrey's concerts. After playing a wedding for friend Jeremy Welsh in 2001, the band returned to the basement of the swanky hotel to the Jimmy Stewart room with their soundman Kevin Browning. “It was at about three in the morning that night, we were—I don’t how many drinks we were into the evening—but we went down to the concert hall and just did a little jam and Kevin (Browning) taped it,” Bayliss said, “We had one of the best improvs we’ve ever had. It was really kind of a different approach to playing that we had never done before and we really liked it.” Cinninger said the original recording is still floating around somewhere between Browning and himself.

At the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in 2008, Browning tells Radio Bonnaroo how a Jimmy Stewart session contributed to the composition of the Umphrey's McGee track entitled “Gulf Stream. “Gulf Stream actually came out of what we call a ‘Jimmy Stewart’, which is our version of an improv. And it came out of one at the Eagles Ballroom at The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin not too far from our hometown in Chicago. It was actually a pretty neat night because, typically the improvs are based around mostly instrumental music, but that night Jake actually stepped up to the microphone over that chord progression and started singing. And Brendan not to miss a beat stepped up and started singing the round with him. So the two of them were essentially just improv-ing not only music but the vocals as well. And when we got off stage, everyone loved it and said ‘Hey, we should, I think we just wrote a song!”