Jon Brook


Upon his return from a 1997 trek throughout war ruined Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jon quit writing songs and performing, claiming, “I’m at least a 1000 books and emotions shy of earning the right to stand behind a microphone.” 8 years later – at the suggestion of one of his Canadian literary heroes, Austin Clarke – Jon wiped the dust off his Taylor Jumbo 615.



Though Jon’s music is filled with grey and morally ambiguous characters living on the outskirts of approval, his mandate is unequivocal: “I’m not interested in ‘happy songs’ – I’ve chosen to write healing songs and, for that reason, I’m obliged to reveal a wound or two now and then. I’m even less interested in writing unhappy songs: I want to write hopeful songs, inspiring songs and I expect I owe today’s listener some hopeful argument – some legitimate reason – as to why we should believe our present world could be improved, or healed. The highest aim of song is to invoke empathy – to offer that rare sight of ourselves in others. In this sense, the folk singer is simply trying to politicize love, hence, my contention that today’s songwriter should be a lobbyist for compassion to be our principle representative in government office.

                                                                                                            

Jon Brooks - Merchandise

Buy some really cool songs and albums!

Delicate Cages




Delicate Cages aims to reveal the complicit natures of good and evil, love and fear, and freedom and imprisonment. The DELICATE CAGES we live within are forms of enslavement - and not all 'cages' are necessarily bad. On his latest and most urgent and accessible collection of songs, Jon Brooks promises freedom to all who choose love over fear.



Moth Nor Rust




Moth Nor Rust is a hopeful answer to the questions raised by No Mean City and Ours And The Shepherds. In the spirit of Guthrie and Seeger, these songs offer us something greater than warning; they offer us the possibility of spiritual renewal, greater justice, love, and healing. Essentially, these solo performances celebrate all that neither moth nor rust can touch. The title is taken from Matthew 6:19 - 21.



Ours and The Shepherds



From No Mean City's failed neighbours, failed nations come. 2007's Ours And The Shepherds is a collection of Canadian war stories from WWI through to the current missions in Afghanistan. 13 songs inspired by, and in part about, Canadians living with the memory of war zone suffering: James Loney, Senator Romeo Dallaire, Sgt. Tommy Prince, Chaplain William Henry Davis, Frank P. Dixon, and John McRae, to name a few. Ours And The Shepherds earned a 2007 Canadian Folk Music Award nomination for Best Songwriter. Penguin Eggs deemed it "a thoroughly wonderful and truly important addition to the canon of Canadian folk music."


No Mean City




No Mean City (2006) takes 12 Toronto addresses and turns them into songs. Beginning with the proud outer face of architecture, the songs move inward to discover our interiors are not in accord with the exteriors. Collectively, the songs make the forceful argument: that homelessness on today's urban streets is a final consequence of the homelessness that is the modern urban soul.



                                                                                                               


Jon Brooks - Photos

Let's get a look at some awesome promotional pictures!

   

  

   



                                                                                                                              


Jon Brooks - Songs


Delicate Cages

1. Because We're Free
2. Fort McMurray
3. Mercy
4. Hudson Girl
5. Cage Fighter
6. Madeline
7. Son Of Hamas
8. Visiting Day
9. The Lonesome Death Of Aqsa Parvaz
10. There Are Only Cages
11. Because We're Free (Reprise)






Moth Nor Rust

1. War Resister
2. When We Gog
3. The Crying of the Times
4. God Pt. IV
5. Small
6. If We Keep What's Within Us, What's Within Us
7. Will Kill Us But If We Give What's Within Us...
8. In The Alleys
9. Safer Days
10. The Crying of the Times (Reprise)
11. There is Only Love



Ours and the Shepherds


1. Jim Loney's Prayer Part I
2. Mimico
3. Tajik Boy
4. Kigali
5. Auction Days
6. Groesbeek
7. Sgt. Tommy Prince
8. Cigarettes
9. The Latest Great Embarrassment
10. The Padre
11. Hill 677
12. Jim Loney's Prayer Part II
13. In Flanders Fields




No Mean City


1. No Mean City
2. No Good
3. How Good It Is to Love Someone, How Right it is to Care
4. Miracle On Bleecker Stree
5. The Curve of the Earth
6. St. James Town
7. Two Storey Town
8. The Industrial Part of Town
9. Kept Plans
10. Stairwell Anniversary
11. MIchael Power
12. By the Lake












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