Moving vans, a wide-open road, a world and nation filled with rich music and literature – these are the driving forces behind Pieta Brown’s country, blues and rock music.

As a small child, Brown says she lived with her father in a shack in Cosgrove, Iowa. She moved to Birmingham, Ala., to live with her mother when she was seven and then moved back to Iowa City when she was 14.

Her interests as an adult still take her around the country. She says she’s done a lot of traveling, both for her musical tours and for her own enjoyment.

“I went to Chili – I’m obsessed with a poet there,” Brown says. “I’ve also been to Mexico because there’s this really interesting band that I like there. I’ve also been to Canada and Europe.”

She says she will go on tour for a while, then return home for a few days. So far on this tour, she’s been to New York, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Canada.

“Lots of times I’ll fly,” Brown says. “If it’s a driving tour, I drive in a little pickup truck.”

One such driving tour was more than a month long and took her music all the way to California, she says.

“I kind of prefer driving tours, actually,” Brown says. “You just get into the right zone, and you don’t have to deal with airports.”

Brown says touring around the United States lets her find pockets where people still appreciate live music.

“The Midwest is one, the southeast another, and California, of course,” Brown says.

Brown says although there is decreasing interest in live music in the United States, there is still plenty of appreciation in other areas of the world and this is one of the reasons she looks forward to her tour this spring.

“[There is] still a lot of fresh enthusiasm in Europe for this type of music,” she says.

Brown says part of the reason there is decreased interest in live music is because of the Internet and television, and yet it is a valuable tool.

Ames is one of those areas where people still really enjoy live music, Brown says. She really enjoyed her experience performing at the M-Shop a couple of years ago.

“In general, I like playing here [in Iowa]; there is still interest in live music,” Brown says.