Submitted photoIowa folkie Greg Brown will play The Belfry in Sisters on Wednesday. The singer-songwriter tours less these days but said he looks forward to visiting Oregon. “If I lived anywhere besides the Midwest, I probably would pick the Willamette Valley,” he said.

Make no mistake: Greg Brown is a contemporary folk musician, and a highly respected one at that. It’s just that everything about his art seems of another time.

Brown grew up in Iowa, honed his chops at New York City’s famous Gerdes Folk City club, and then spent time as a pro songwriter in Los Angeles before moving back to his home state, where he’s been cranking out albums since the 1970s.

In that time, Brown has earned a reputation as one of the American Midwest’s most skilled folk singers, an understated talent who pairs his rumbling voice with plainly strummed acoustic guitar and thoughtful lyrics about life, love, loss and the roads in between. He’s a seasoned storyteller who sounds wiser than the trees, and less hurried, too.

Brown’s songs tend to have a lo-fi quality to ’em, like they were recorded in the dark before the use of electricity was common. Even his website and his promotional photos have a decidedly outdated feel; they add to the man’s timeless mystique.

Greg Brown; 7 p.m. Wednesday; $33 and $40 plus fees, available through the venue; Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St., Bend; www.towertheatre.org.

— Ben Salmon