Folk/jazz banjo player Alison Brown is not about pickin’ and grinnin’ or slappin’ her knees to the tune of “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

Although one of her greatest influences, banjoist Earl Scruggs, did write the show’s rollicking theme song.

Though she dips into the bluegrass well, Brown is more about cool and breezy improvisational jazz.

She claims her quartet is similar to a jazz band in that it uses piano, bass and drums. However, she said the banjo isn’t traditionally considered a jazz instrument.

Since her style is in a class by itself, Brown said it has been difficult to garner radio airplay on most contemporary stations.

“We got some airplay on smooth jazz radio,” she said. “Sonically, it fits [that format]. We get a lot of support from National Public Radio stations all around the country.”

Brown is also incomparable in the fact that she graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in history and literature. Two years later, she graduated from UCLA with a MBA.

From there she took a job with Smith Barney in San Francisco and worked as an investment banker for two years. Needless to say, bonds weren’t her true passion.

“My heart wasn’t in it,” she said. “I felt the most successful bankers lived and breathed tax exempt bonds.”

After resigning from Smith Barney, Brown took a six month respite, learned jazz guitar, wrote music and sat in with a local Bay Area bluegrass band.

“There are some good banjo players in California [which may surprise people],” she said. “California players tend to be looser in their interpretation of bluegrass.”

A phone call from bluegrass standout Alison Krauss proved to be her big break.

“[Krauss] called me to play for a few shows, and it ended up turning into three years,” she said. “I thought it would be fun to tour the country with a bluegrass band.”

A high point of the tour, Brown said, was touring in Appalachian country, the birthplace of bluegrass. She said it was thrilling to tour in parts of the country that she had heard about only in songs.

Brown toured with Krauss and Union Station from 1989 to 1990 and played on their Grammy-winning album “I’ve Got That Old Feeling.”

In 1991, Brown made room in her trophy case for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s banjoist of the year award. She was the first female in the IBMA’s history to receive the award.

“I did not expect to win at all,” she said, since she was up against players she “worshipped” when she was growing up.

That same year Brown released her first solo album on Vanguard Records, “Simple Pleasures.” She released a total of four albums on the label before starting her own.

In 1993, she upstarted Compass Records with Garry West, who she met while touring with Michelle Shocked in 1992. West was Shocked’s former bassist and currently plays bass with Brown’s quartet.

Since its inception, the Nashville-based label has released albums from bassist Victor Wooten, Brit-rocker Clive Gregson, roots rockers Farmer Not So John and singer/songwriters Pierce Pettis and Kate Campbell.

The label has released nearly 35 albums to date, Brown boasted.

“[Releases] are coming fast and furious,” she said.

Brown and West started the label “because as touring musicians, we were running into artists we liked,” she said. “I didn’t start Compass to put out my records.”

Actually, she just recently released her first album, “Out of the Blue,” on Compass.

Brown said it takes a lot of energy to tour and manage a record company simultaneously, but that her Nashville staff does well holding down the fort while she’s on the road.

She added that there are three criteria that goes into signing an artist or band. First, she said their music must “appeal artistically.”

Second, the company has to be assured that Compass can do the artist justice in marketing their music properly.

Lastly, the artist has to be touring nationally, she said.

With all the signing of bands and paperwork, it’s a good thing Brown has a degree in business.

Brown and her quartet will jazz up The M-Shop Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $7 for students, $9 general admission.