Jonatha Brooke
Encyclopedia
Jonatha Brooke is an American
folk rock
singer-songwriter
and guitarist
from Illinois
.
Her music merges elements of folk, rock and pop
, often with poignant lyrics and complex harmonies. She has been a performer, writer, and artist since the late 1980s, and her songs have been used in television shows and movies.
began playing music together in the 1980s after having met at Amherst College
. They performed regularly during their college years. Their folk songs were marked by "witty wordplay and sumptuous pop harmonies," according to one music critic. Another critic suggested Brooke was the creative dynamo behind the team. Another suggested that many artists of this era were inspired by Joni Mitchell
to strive for excellent musicianship, singing, and writing. Brooke was sometimes grouped with emerging 1990s talents such as the Indigo Girls
, Sheryl Crow
, Shawn Colvin
, and Mary Chapin Carpenter
. She continued to write and perform although there was a brief hiatus in which she focused on ballet
.
In 1989, the duo played the coffeehouse folk circuit and radio as The Story and were described as an example of the "folk-rock singer-songwriter aesthetic," according to one account. That year they created a demo called Over Oceans. They were signed to the independent label Green Linnet which, in 1991, issued the duo's debut full-length album Grace in Gravity. Later Elektra Records
signed The Story and re-issued their debut. Their second album, The Angel in the House, was released in 1993, highlighting their intricate and sometimes dissonant
harmonies.
One music critic described their approach as "levity" between heavy songs about "God
, church, death, female oppression, self-suppression, mothers and daughters." Their songs adroitly avoided "heavy-handedness" with a certain "winning buoyancy of tune and/or spirit" with "sophisticated harmonic changes whose intriguing hooks come at you cockeyed and sideways more often than they swoop down from the heavens." The duo were compared with artists such as Suzanne Vega
and Indigo Girls
. Another reviewer gave the duo mixed reviews: "intriguingly distorted harmonies and interesting turns of phrase" but some "attempts at cleverness overreached" and there was "a painfully obvious unrecorded song about dieting and a silly, albeit self-consciously so, stab at voguing a la Madonna."
But after moping, she recalled: "I realized something had changed. I didn't have a contract with MCA Records
, and I didn't have tour support, and I wasn't going to get to make a video, which they had promised. But the shows were still sold out, my audience was still there and they didn't care whether or not I was part of the Universal conglomerate. That was a really empowering and reassuring time."
While in her early 30s without backing from a major label, she became known as an industrious "cutting-edge world of do-it-yourself" marketer by using the Internet
creatively to reach out to fans. She recorded "Jonatha Brooke Live" (1999) on her own label Bad Dog Records. At first she sold via the Internet. She packaged and mailed about 2,500 copies and autographed each one for a personal touch. She moved to Malibu in 1997.
Critics wrote mostly positive reviews. One described her as a "down-to-earth poet" with "an apparently inexhaustible supply of anecdotes" and "flawlessly crafted lush backdrops for songs that mused wistfully about love and destiny," although "emotions were often obscured by the complex arrangements and gorgeous vocal harmonies." Another critic described her earlier songs as "introspective, sometimes bleak Joni Mitchell-esque compositions." Another described her music as "contemporary folk".
In the mid 1990s Brooke's vocals were featured in a Goodyear
Tire commercial.
who worked with artists such as Bryan Adams
, The Rolling Stones
, The Corrs
, and Hall & Oates
. Later, her song "Your House" was included in the ABC series entitled Once and Again.
In 2002, she performed two songs on Disney's Return to Never Land
soundtrack, a movie based on the Peter Pan
story, contributing her original song "I'll Try" and a cover "The Second Star to the Right". Brooke was featured as a guest vocalist with artists such as Lisa Loeb
, Chris Botti
and Patty Larkin
, and has co-written tracks for Joe Sample's
The Pecan Tree.
In 2003, Brooke revamped 1995's song "War" as a protest against the Gulf War. In 2004, she released Back in the Circus
with new material plus song covers from songs by The Alan Parsons Project
, The Beach Boys
, and James Taylor
. The album was also released in the United Kingdom
in 2005 and combined tracks with several Steady Pull songs. In August 2006, she released a combination CD and DVD titled Live in New York. Jonatha Brooke got married again in 2004––this time to manager Patrick Raines. She moved back from California to New York's upper west side. In April 2007, Brooke released Careful What You Wish For
via Rykodisc
distribution. "The vibe of the album," she wrote in notes for reporters, was "all about busting out, being on the edge, playing with great abandon to see what we could come up with."
Some Brooke songs have been sung or "covered" by other artists. Her tune "Because I Told You So" from Ten Cent Wings was covered by Nick Lachey
on his 2006 album What's Left of Me
. Her song "Inconsolable" from Plumb was featured in a TV episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled "Prophecy Girl
". Buffy creator Joss Whedon
chose Brooke's "What You Don't Know" to be the theme song for the TV series Dollhouse
starring Eliza Dushku
.
In 2008, Brooke appeared on the Tinker Bell
movie soundtrack with the song "Be True". The movie's soundtrack was released on October 14, 2008, a week before the DVD release and contains songs from and inspired by the film. In February 2008, Brooke recorded The Works which was her seventh solo release. This effort was inspired by the music of late folk legend Woody Guthrie
. Brooke was invited by Guthrie's daughter Nora to sift through the private archives and hunt through Guthrie's unreleased material for possible adaptations. Brooke said she was "smitten" with Guthrie's work and going through it was like "going to church." She liked his poetic love songs like "My Sweet and Bitter Bowl" and spiritual deeper tunes like "My Battle" and loved Guthrie's "full spectrum of craziness" as she described his writings. Brooke's The Works featured talented musicians including keyboard player Joe Sample
, bassist Christian McBride
, drummer Steve Gadd
, and pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz
.
One reviewer lauded Brooke's "forceful, girlish voice" and described her tune "My Sweet and Bitter Bowl" as a "driving opener" and "standout" and described the entire suite of songs as "solid" but which "rarely sparkles". The critic described the album as a "Brooke record" not a "Guthrie one". Another critic described the album as "Woody Guthrie's lyrics" with "an urbane new voice within Brooke's sleek, winking alt-pop ... if the Dust Bowl troubadour had matriculated at Amherst, he'd sound just like this." In 2008, she participated in the music album Songs for Tibet, an initiative to support Tibet
an Dalai Lama
Tenzin Gyatso. The album was issued on August 5 via iTunes
and on August 19 in stores. In 2009, she shared vocal duties with Davy Knowles on the song "Taste Of Danger" on the album Coming Up For Air from Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam.
Brooke was a judge on the 10th annual Independent Music Awards
. She was also a judge for the 5th and 9th Independent Music Awards. According to Brooke in an interview, her favorite collaboration with other artists was the song "Forgiven" with Chris Botti (in Chris' 2002 CD The Very Best of Chris Botti) In 2010, Jonatha Brooke performed as the first part of the French tour of Nolwenn Leroy, singing songs in English and in French, and joined Nolwenn Leroy for some duets.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
from Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
.
Her music merges elements of folk, rock and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, often with poignant lyrics and complex harmonies. She has been a performer, writer, and artist since the late 1980s, and her songs have been used in television shows and movies.
Beginnings
Jonatha Brooke and fellow Bostonian Jennifer KimballJennifer Kimball
Jennifer Kimball is a vocalist and songwriter who is notable for being part of the acclaimed folk duo The Story. She is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and has released two albums Veering from the Wave and Oh Hear Us....
began playing music together in the 1980s after having met at Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
. They performed regularly during their college years. Their folk songs were marked by "witty wordplay and sumptuous pop harmonies," according to one music critic. Another critic suggested Brooke was the creative dynamo behind the team. Another suggested that many artists of this era were inspired by Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
to strive for excellent musicianship, singing, and writing. Brooke was sometimes grouped with emerging 1990s talents such as the Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...
, Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...
, and Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American folk and country music artist. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer...
. She continued to write and perform although there was a brief hiatus in which she focused on ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
.
In 1989, the duo played the coffeehouse folk circuit and radio as The Story and were described as an example of the "folk-rock singer-songwriter aesthetic," according to one account. That year they created a demo called Over Oceans. They were signed to the independent label Green Linnet which, in 1991, issued the duo's debut full-length album Grace in Gravity. Later Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
signed The Story and re-issued their debut. Their second album, The Angel in the House, was released in 1993, highlighting their intricate and sometimes dissonant
Consonance and dissonance
In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...
harmonies.
One music critic described their approach as "levity" between heavy songs about "God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, church, death, female oppression, self-suppression, mothers and daughters." Their songs adroitly avoided "heavy-handedness" with a certain "winning buoyancy of tune and/or spirit" with "sophisticated harmonic changes whose intriguing hooks come at you cockeyed and sideways more often than they swoop down from the heavens." The duo were compared with artists such as Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
and Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
. Another reviewer gave the duo mixed reviews: "intriguingly distorted harmonies and interesting turns of phrase" but some "attempts at cleverness overreached" and there was "a painfully obvious unrecorded song about dieting and a silly, albeit self-consciously so, stab at voguing a la Madonna."
Solo career
In 1994, Brooke pursued a solo career. One critic described Brooke as having a "lovely soprano voice" and liked the "catchy original melodies and thorny lyrics." Her first solo effort Plumb (1995) won mixed reviews; one critic did not like the "too-bald preachiness". But the followup 10 Cent Wings was received more favorably and earned critical commentary such as "sly phrases and lush pop arrangements that made The Story so enjoyable" although sometimes literary conceits were stretched too far, according to one critic. Brooke shifted from folk-pop to a more radio-friendly style. At some point in these years Brooke married Alain Mallet, a keyboard player who also became her producer and arranger.Dumped and Rebounded
The changing dynamics of the music business in the middle 1990s had a "sell-or-perish" pattern featuring a "leaner, meaner record industry," as one critic described the industry in the 1990s. "I was in the middle of a national tour when MCA dropped me," Brooke recalled. "One second you're a princess on the throne, and the next week no one will return your phone calls," she commented to a reporter.But after moping, she recalled: "I realized something had changed. I didn't have a contract with MCA Records
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
, and I didn't have tour support, and I wasn't going to get to make a video, which they had promised. But the shows were still sold out, my audience was still there and they didn't care whether or not I was part of the Universal conglomerate. That was a really empowering and reassuring time."
While in her early 30s without backing from a major label, she became known as an industrious "cutting-edge world of do-it-yourself" marketer by using the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
creatively to reach out to fans. She recorded "Jonatha Brooke Live" (1999) on her own label Bad Dog Records. At first she sold via the Internet. She packaged and mailed about 2,500 copies and autographed each one for a personal touch. She moved to Malibu in 1997.
Critics wrote mostly positive reviews. One described her as a "down-to-earth poet" with "an apparently inexhaustible supply of anecdotes" and "flawlessly crafted lush backdrops for songs that mused wistfully about love and destiny," although "emotions were often obscured by the complex arrangements and gorgeous vocal harmonies." Another critic described her earlier songs as "introspective, sometimes bleak Joni Mitchell-esque compositions." Another described her music as "contemporary folk".
In the mid 1990s Brooke's vocals were featured in a Goodyear
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, SUVs, race cars, airplanes, farm equipment and heavy earth-mover machinery....
Tire commercial.
The 2000s
Brooke's next album, Steady Pull (2001) reflected "relief and optimism." She again released it on her own label, commenting that there were "still plenty of dark corners on this record, but I wanted to push boundaries." A critic said she opened up more with this album. Her song "New Dress" was about a newfound romantic bliss. This rock-influenced album was co-produced by Brooke and music engineer Bob ClearmountainBob Clearmountain
Bob Clearmountain is an award-winning American music engineer, mixer and producer. He has worked with many prominent names in music including Bruce Springsteen , The Rolling Stones , Bryan Adams , Robbie Williams Bob Clearmountain is an award-winning American music engineer, mixer and producer. He...
who worked with artists such as Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, The Corrs
The Corrs
The Corrs are an Irish band which combine pop rock with traditional Celtic folk music. The brother and sisters are from Dundalk, Ireland. The group consists of the Corr siblings: Andrea ; Sharon ; Caroline ; and Jim .The Corrs came to international prominence with their performance at the...
, and Hall & Oates
Hall & Oates
Hall & Oates are an American musical duo composed of Daryl Hall and John Oates. They achieved their greatest fame in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. Both sing and play instruments. They specialized in a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues styles, which they dubbed "rock and soul."...
. Later, her song "Your House" was included in the ABC series entitled Once and Again.
In 2002, she performed two songs on Disney's Return to Never Land
Return to Never Land
Return to Never Land is a 2002 American animated film produced by DisneyToon Studios in Sydney, Australia and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is a sequel to the 1953 film Peter Pan, based on J.M...
soundtrack, a movie based on the Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
story, contributing her original song "I'll Try" and a cover "The Second Star to the Right". Brooke was featured as a guest vocalist with artists such as Lisa Loeb
Lisa Loeb
Lisa Anne Loeb is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She launched her career in 1994 with the song, "Stay ". She was the first artist to have a number one single in the United States while not signed to a recording contract.Loeb's efforts now include music, film, television, voice-over...
, Chris Botti
Chris Botti
Christopher Stephen "Chris" Botti , is an American trumpeter and composer. In 2007, Botti was nominated for two Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album. On December 4, 2009, he was nominated for three more Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album and Best Long Form Music Video...
and Patty Larkin
Patty Larkin
Patty Larkin is a Boston-based singer-songwriter. redefines the boundaries of folk-urban pop music with her inventive guitar wizardry and uncompromising vocals and lyrics...
, and has co-written tracks for Joe Sample's
Joe Sample
Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 .- Biography :Sample began playing the piano...
The Pecan Tree.
In 2003, Brooke revamped 1995's song "War" as a protest against the Gulf War. In 2004, she released Back in the Circus
Back in the Circus
Back in the Circus is the fourth studio album released by Jonatha Brooke.The track "Less Than Love is Nothing" is the first track Brooke has ever co-written, having written it with Eric Bazilian...
with new material plus song covers from songs by The Alan Parsons Project
The Alan Parsons Project
The Alan Parsons Project was a British progressive rock band, active between 1975 and 1990, consisting of singer Eric Woolfson and keyboardist Alan Parsons surrounded by a varying number of session musicians....
, The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
, and James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
. The album was also released in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 2005 and combined tracks with several Steady Pull songs. In August 2006, she released a combination CD and DVD titled Live in New York. Jonatha Brooke got married again in 2004––this time to manager Patrick Raines. She moved back from California to New York's upper west side. In April 2007, Brooke released Careful What You Wish For
Careful What You Wish For (Jonatha Brooke album)
Careful What You Wish For is Jonatha Brooke's fifth studio album, released in 2007.-Track listing:# "Careful What You Wish For" – 3:59# "Beautiful Girl" – 4:04# "Keep the River on your Right" – 3:49# "I'll Leave the Light On" – 3:51...
via Rykodisc
Rykodisc
Rykodisc Records is an American record label. It is owned by Warner Music Group, operates as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance.-Company history:...
distribution. "The vibe of the album," she wrote in notes for reporters, was "all about busting out, being on the edge, playing with great abandon to see what we could come up with."
Some Brooke songs have been sung or "covered" by other artists. Her tune "Because I Told You So" from Ten Cent Wings was covered by Nick Lachey
Nick Lachey
Nicholas Scott "Nick" Lachey is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and television personality. Lachey rose to fame as a member of the boy band 98 Degrees. He later starred in the reality television series Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica with his then-wife, Jessica Simpson. He has released...
on his 2006 album What's Left of Me
What's Left of Me (album)
What's Left of Me is Nick Lachey's second album, released on May 9, 2006. The CD includes the hit ballad "What's Left of Me", which to date is Lachey's most successful single as a solo artist. Other singles included are titled "I Can't Hate You Anymore" and "Resolution"...
. Her song "Inconsolable" from Plumb was featured in a TV episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled "Prophecy Girl
Prophecy Girl
"Prophecy Girl" is the season finale of the WB Television Network's first season of the drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the 12th episode of the series. The episode first aired on June 2, 1997 with the series acting as a midseason replacement for Savannah...
". Buffy creator Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
chose Brooke's "What You Don't Know" to be the theme song for the TV series Dollhouse
Dollhouse (TV series)
Dollhouse is an American science fiction television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon under Mutant Enemy Productions. It premiered on February 13, 2009, on the Fox network and was officially cancelled on November 11, 2009. The final episode aired on January 29, 2010...
starring Eliza Dushku
Eliza Dushku
Eliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress known for her television roles, including recurring appearances as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse...
.
In 2008, Brooke appeared on the Tinker Bell
Tinker Bell (film)
Tinker Bell is a 2008 computer animated film based on the Disney Fairies franchise produced by DisneyToon Studios. It revolves around Tinker Bell, a fairy character created by J. M. Barrie in his play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, and featured in the 1953 Disney animated film, Peter...
movie soundtrack with the song "Be True". The movie's soundtrack was released on October 14, 2008, a week before the DVD release and contains songs from and inspired by the film. In February 2008, Brooke recorded The Works which was her seventh solo release. This effort was inspired by the music of late folk legend Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
. Brooke was invited by Guthrie's daughter Nora to sift through the private archives and hunt through Guthrie's unreleased material for possible adaptations. Brooke said she was "smitten" with Guthrie's work and going through it was like "going to church." She liked his poetic love songs like "My Sweet and Bitter Bowl" and spiritual deeper tunes like "My Battle" and loved Guthrie's "full spectrum of craziness" as she described his writings. Brooke's The Works featured talented musicians including keyboard player Joe Sample
Joe Sample
Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 .- Biography :Sample began playing the piano...
, bassist Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...
, drummer Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
, and pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz
Greg Leisz
Greg Leisz is an American multi-instrumentalist, playing lap and pedal steel guitars, guitar, mandolin, and bass.- Biography :Leisz was influenced early on by the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, especially pedal steel player "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow...
.
One reviewer lauded Brooke's "forceful, girlish voice" and described her tune "My Sweet and Bitter Bowl" as a "driving opener" and "standout" and described the entire suite of songs as "solid" but which "rarely sparkles". The critic described the album as a "Brooke record" not a "Guthrie one". Another critic described the album as "Woody Guthrie's lyrics" with "an urbane new voice within Brooke's sleek, winking alt-pop ... if the Dust Bowl troubadour had matriculated at Amherst, he'd sound just like this." In 2008, she participated in the music album Songs for Tibet, an initiative to support Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
an Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
Tenzin Gyatso. The album was issued on August 5 via iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
and on August 19 in stores. In 2009, she shared vocal duties with Davy Knowles on the song "Taste Of Danger" on the album Coming Up For Air from Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam.
Brooke was a judge on the 10th annual Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....
. She was also a judge for the 5th and 9th Independent Music Awards. According to Brooke in an interview, her favorite collaboration with other artists was the song "Forgiven" with Chris Botti (in Chris' 2002 CD The Very Best of Chris Botti) In 2010, Jonatha Brooke performed as the first part of the French tour of Nolwenn Leroy, singing songs in English and in French, and joined Nolwenn Leroy for some duets.
Discography
| Album | Year | Label | Notes | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grace in Gravity Grace in Gravity Grace in Gravity is the debut album from the folk-rock duo The Story. The album was first released by Green Linnet Records and in 1992 it was re-released by Elektra Records with the same track listing.-Track listing:... |
1991 | part of The Story | ||
| The Angel in the House The Angel in the House (album) The Angel in the House is the second album of folk-rock duo The Story.- Track listing :All songs written by Jonatha Brooke except where mentioned.# So Much Mine - 4:18# Missing Person Afternoon - 3:34# The Gilded Cage - 6:04... |
1993 | Elektra | part of The Story | |
| Plumb | 1995 | Blue Thumb | Tommy LiPuma = label owner | |
| 10 Cent Wings | 1997 | MCA | ||
| Jonatha Brooke Live | 1999 | Bad Dog Records | ||
| Steady Pull | 2001 | Bad Dog Records | ||
| Back in the Circus Back in the Circus Back in the Circus is the fourth studio album released by Jonatha Brooke.The track "Less Than Love is Nothing" is the first track Brooke has ever co-written, having written it with Eric Bazilian... |
2004 | |||
| Live In New York | 2006 | CD/DVD set | ||
| Careful What You Wish For Careful What You Wish For (Jonatha Brooke album) Careful What You Wish For is Jonatha Brooke's fifth studio album, released in 2007.-Track listing:# "Careful What You Wish For" – 3:59# "Beautiful Girl" – 4:04# "Keep the River on your Right" – 3:49# "I'll Leave the Light On" – 3:51... |
2007 | |||
| The Works | 2008 | |||