Connecticut is not a place well-known for its bluegrass music. In fact, the state is not known for much at all.

Its obscurity makes Alison Brown’s success all the more shocking and rewarding.

Brown began taking banjo lessons when she was a young child in Connecticut. Her peers thought she was a little odd. The only people they had ever seen playing the banjo were country-western stars out of Tennessee and Bela Fleck’s masterful playing on “Hee-Haw.”

But Brown struggled on. The instrument fascinated her because of its history and its unique sound.

“I didn’t make a conscious decision to be a banjo player,” Brown explained. “I never intended to be one. But circumstances kept pushing me in that direction. So, I never really chose this profession. It kind of chose me.”

Years later, after numerous hours of practice, Brown moved to San Diego. When she arrived, she happened to run into a burgeoning bluegrass scene.

“It was really interesting,” Brown said. “I didn’t expect to run into a bluegrass scene happening there. It really took me by surprise. The scene was the result of a migration of bluegrass musicians in the ’20s and ’30s to southern California.”

Brown quickly found her place among this scene, establishing herself as a banjo virtuoso. But her big opportunity came when she joined Alison Krauss to form Union Station in 1989.

During the three years she was with the group, Brown was named Banjo Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association.

She is the only woman to ever receive the honor.

“I was hugely surprised,” Brown said about the award. “[I was] very honored. I couldn’t believe that someone had noticed a musician playing bluegrass banjo music.”

She left Union Station and formed her own instrumental quartet in 1991. The group includes bassist/producer Garry West, pianist John Burr and drummer Rick Reed.

“The band is really organic,” Brown said. “The music tends to take its own direction and we simply flow with it. Everyone gets along really well. That helps the music move along better.”

The quartet, which is different than standard bluegrass because of the instruments involved, has released four CDs, “Simple Pleasures,” “Twilight Motel,” “Look Left” and “Quartet.”

The band’s first release earned Brown a Grammy nomination, something she never thought would have happened.

Brown also never thought she would be able to make a living playing the banjo.

But her talent is paying the bills and has enabled her to create her own recording label, Compass Records, with bandmate West.

“The label is a result of my tour with Michelle Shocked,” Brown explained. “While I was coordinating Shocked’s tour, I saw that there are a lot of good musicians who aren’t signed to a label or are getting scammed by their labels.

“I wanted to create a label where the artist and music comes first, not corporate profits.”

Allison Brown will be playing an all-ages show at the M-Shop tonight at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $7 for students and $9 for general admission.