CEDAR FALLS - It's a common side effect of listening to some of the great musical lyricists - Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell. Close your eyes and listen, and you don't just hear the music - you see it.

With "In the Cool," Pieta Brown adds herself to that esteemed list.

"It seems like songs have a way of telling you if they go together or not," says Pieta Brown of recording "In the Cool." "I definitely had a vision in mind for this record … but the strongest songs seem to rise to the surface."

Pieta's songwriting abilities seem innate, and for good reason. Her father is esteemed folk artist Greg Brown, also known for lyrical abilities put to good use by recording artists including Willie Nelson and Shawn Colvin.

"Greg is known for, even more than his guitar playing and singing, as a great lyricist. That's really his claim to fame," says John Luzaich, general manager of the Oster Regent Theatre, where both Browns will perform March 4.

Pieta Brown may seem to some to be a late bloomer, considering her heritage, but she doesn't see it that way.

"I think I did so much work on the inside for so long, it wasn't as surprising to me as it was from the outside. Music and writing have been a part of what I've been doing since I can remember," she says. "It just took me a long time to let those things out."

Now 31, Pieta Brown didn't start performing until 5 years ago, when she picked up a guitar.

"I played piano a lot as a kid, and I wrote songs and poems. I always dealt with the world as an artist, and I always knew that's what I was and how I was going to live my life, but I didn't really know how it was going to take shape until I picked up a guitar," she notes. "Once I picked it up I felt a strong connection, and the songs started coming out in that way."

When Pieta Brown started getting serious about recording an album, she approached Bo Ramsey to produce. The two have been musically paired ever since, with Ramsey producing and playing for her and vice versa. Ramsey also works with Greg Brown, and all three will most likely share the Oster stage together.

Ramsey and Pieta Brown have opened for Greg Brown on multiple dates, and though their styles differ, the connection is visible.

"I think (Greg and Pieta) are kind of coming from two different places," says Craig Kessler, owner of Real Compact Discs and Records in Iowa City. "There's influence abounding but stylistically they're not all that close."

Originally from Iowa, the Browns are a good indication of the talent teeming under the surface of Iowa's cornfields and hog farms, says Kessler.

"There is a lot of unrecognized talent in this state," he says. "(Pieta) and Bo Ramsey are at the top, and anybody who follows the music scene in this state certainly knows who they are.

"She just gets more and more noticed, and she gets better all the time, too. I just saw her again on Valentine's Day and she was a knockout. Her style has become more solidified, her playing gets better and better. She and Bo interact better all the time … Anybody who is any good I've always felt was hard to capture on a record."

Pieta Brown's constant improvement may come simply from doing what she loves - and she has no plans to stop being passionate about her music.

"I just want to keep getting further and further in music. It's such an amazing place," she says. "The more I learn the more I'm excited about it. It's such an open place and I love that about it. It goes beyond age and time and sex and all that stuff. I think that whole idea of trying to be a great artist, that's where I want to take it."

Contact Kelsey Holm at (319) 291-1464 or kelsey.holm@wcfcourier.com.