Jon Brooks warms up MERA

Sep 16, 2010

Photo: Jon Brooks at MERA

On Sept. 12, Jon Brooks gave an intimate acoustic afternoon concert at the MERA schoolhouse in McDonalds Corners.

Accompanying himself alternately on guitar, banjitar and harmonica, he opened his first set with Buffy Ste. Marie's “Universal Soldier”. He said she is “a singer with a conscience” and one whom he tries to model himself after.

His perky, guitar-slapping accompaniment and his expressive, well-worn voice were the perfect tonic for a chilly day. For the youngsters in the crowd Jon played his original tune “Small” from his new CD titled “Moth Nor Rust” and sang, “If I was an astronaut, me and the problems I got- I could see how really small we are”.

Songs like these and others, which demonstrate his range both as a lyricist and a musician, have earned Jon his second Canadian Folk Music Award nomination for songwriter of the year. He sang “There Is Only Love”, which includes a mournful harmonica accompaniment and whose first verse reads: “We are the earth and we are its oil. We are seeds; we are gifts to the soil. We are hope’s blood and bone that we’re never alone – that is to say, that there is only love”

Equally moving are his more political tunes, originals like “Kigali” from his 2007 CD titled “Ours and the Shepherds”, whose chorus laments, “Does your heart know the way home from Kigali?”. The song was dedicated to Senator Romeo Dallaire. He performed “War Resister” also from his latest CD, a tune he dedicated to his friend, US soldier Jeremy Hinzman, who fled the Iraq war hoping for safe haven in Canada.

His tunes are classic folk, big on words, heart and hope, each strummed or picked in a straight ahead, no nonsense fashion and each achieving that fine balance between head and heart. Their goal, in Jon's words, is “to create empathy and unite people”.

Jon spoke about his musical background, first playing the Hammond organ, then studying jazz piano and after that venturing into the rock scene before finally deciding to return to school to become a writer, a foray that has stood his songwriting in very good stead.

After he had published a number of short stories and poems it was a trip to the racetrack with two of his favorite Canadian authors and mentors Barry Callaghan and Austin Clarke that put him on the songwriting track again. Clarke had posed the question to Jon, “Do you think you could unite people in story with melody in three and half minutes?”

Jon did just that at MERA and will continue to do so with a number of upcoming concerts. To sample some of his recordings and to find out where he will be playing next, visit his website: www.jonbrooks.ca