Jon Brooks’ music is polyphonic in sound, word, and influence. His performances JON BROOKS are emotionally intense raids on the inexplicable human heart. Brooks’ 7 “I write songs to calm those albums are thematic obsessions over paradox, love, fear, religion, war, PTSD, who’ve looked into and seen technology, grief, animal justice, murder, what’s in their hearts; I also write ecology, esoteria, and the stars - his essential message: we are loved. songs to terrify those who’ve not.” “Brooks’ massive declamatory vibe and hypnotic, inimitable guitar playing gives an audience goosebumps you could grate cheese on.” – Paul Corby, Roots Music Canada, February 2019. “He is by turns metaphorical and metaphysical; at times he examines the small details of life, at others, he soars above human struggles seeking something higher; his gritty voice is infinitely kind and gentle. Mature, wise, and intrepid – somehow Jon Brooks sings a path to the mysterious and complex essence of the human condition.” – Julie Miller, CFLX 95,5 Sherbrooke, Quebec “(Brooks) speaks and sings words that need to be spoken and sung and he does it beautifully, perfectly, and with absolute finesse.” – Rod Kennedy, Founder & Producer, Kerrville Folk Festival jonbrooks.ca | facebook.com/jonbrooks.ca | twitter.com/jonbrooksmusic | instagram.com/jonbrooksmusic Contact Jon: [email protected] | 416.559.9363 Management: Dave Gallant: [email protected] | 250.886.7928 Moth Nor Rust II (Fallen Tree Records, 2019) Moth Nor Rust II was produced by the original Moth Nor Rust’s engineer, Jason LaPrade and co-produced by Brooks’ longtime friend and musical compadre, Neil Cruickshank. In Jon’s words, “The song is an art form that operates in time and 10 years’ time has a way of transforming the song in ways worthy of revisiting.” Brooks’ band The Outskirts of Approval includes Neil Cruickshank (guitar, organ and vocals), Joe Ernewein (electric guitar), John Showman (violin), and Vivienne Wilder (upright bass and vocals). No One Travels Alone (Borealis Records, 2018) No One Travels Alone accomplishes something unique in modern songwriting: borrowing from the Elizabethan sonneteers, the album fulfils a ‘corona’ of songs. Corona form interconnects each song by first and last lines – the last line of the first song is the first line of the following song, etc... until the final song completes a circle, or corona. This new set of songs is interconnected, as are we; thus it is: No One Travels Alone. The Smiling & Beautiful Countryside (Borealis Records, 2014) Philosophical paradox, gallows humour, impossible love, titillating gore, adulterous sex, serial killers, gun dealers, rampage killing, missing women, First Nations genocide, Shakespeare, and John Milton: The Smiling and Beautiful Countryside is neither an album for casual fans nor is it music that will ever be heard in your dentist’s waiting room. Delicate Cages (Borealis Records, 2012) Songs inter-woven by themes of love, fear, grief, freedom and imprisonment. The idea was inspired by the Robert Bly poem, Taking The Hands: ‘Taking the hands of someone you love,/You see they are delicate cages.’ Also consistent with Jon’s albums, the song subjects were as wide ranging as they were topical and controversial: Alberta tar sands (Fort McMurray); Bill 101 and Quebec language laws (Hudson Girl); Palestinian suicide bombers (Son of Hamas); Bosnian child soldiers (Cage Fighter); and so-called ‘Honour Killing’ (The Lonesome Death of Aqsa Parvez). Moth Nor Rust (Independent, 2009/Fallen Tree Records, 2019) Solo acoustic, no overdubs, Moth Nor Rust begins with the question: what makes us happily human? Brooks’ answer: all that neither moth nor rust can touch: love, hope, trust, forgiveness, vigilance, faith, curiosity, memory, inspiration, courage, wonder and wonder’s paradoxical willingness to accept and embrace the ineffable, the unknown. Later remade as Moth Nor Rust II in 2019. Ours And the Shepherds (Independent, 2007/Fallen Tree Records, 2019) A collection of Canadian war stories dating from WWI to missions in Afghanistan, the songs were inspired by Canadians including Sen. Romeo Dallaire, Padre William Henry Davis, John McRae, Sgt. Tommy Prince, and James Loney. The album earned Brooks multiple awards, a place in the Canadian War Museum and the John McCrae Society, and his first of four Songwriter of the Year nominations at the 2007 Canadian Folk Music Awards. No Mean City (Independent, 2006/Fallen Tree Records, 2019) Brooks’s first full-length offering was re-released digitally by Fallen Tree Records in 2019. No Mean City is a 13-song ode to the modern urban disaster and is set in Toronto’s multicultural past and present. Focusing on newcomers, refugees, and the dispossessed the songs are densely layered with biblical, literary, and historical allusion. The idea for No Mean City was inspired by the Toronto architecture historian Eric Arthur’s book of the same name – which also accounts for why all the songs devote equal attention to their characters’ surrounding architecture. Awards and Nominated: 2015 Canadian Folk Music Award - ‘English Songwriter of the Year’ LISTEN to Jon Brooks Nominations Nominated: 2015 Canadian Folk Music Award - ‘Album of the Year’ Essentials Playlist at Nominated: 2012 Canadian Folk Music Award - ‘English Songwriter of the Year’ https://smarturl.it/s3yh6q Nominated: 2014 Toronto Min Sook Lee Labour Arts Award Winner: 2010 International Songwriting Competition Winner: 2010 Kerrville New Folk Award, The Kerrville Folk Festival, Kerrville, TX Nominated: 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award - ‘English Songwriter of the Year’ Winner: 2009 US National Public Radio’s Mountain Stage New Song Contest Nominated: 2007 Canadian Folk Music Award - ‘English Songwriter of the Year’ .