Jonatha Brooke (Live Music)

06 October 2008

Joantha Brooke
St Georges, Bristol, UK
Sunday, October 5, 2008

Seeing Jonatha Brooke with no prior conceptions of who she was or what she sounded like was a revelation and a very pleasant surprise.
First of all, she is a terrific musician. She played the guitar in loads of unusual tunings, Joni Mitchell-style, but more like Richie Havens – she had a rhythmic triplet strumming style reminiscent of Ritchie that drove many of the songs; others were beautifully fingerpicked, folk-style.
When she moved over to the lush grand piano courtesy of posh St Georges, it was apparent she could really play that thing, sounding a bit Elton John-ish – and that’s a compliment.
Her singing took no back seat to her instrumental prowess, either. She used all of her voice, ranging from high, clear Dolly Parton to sultry talking asides and everything between. It gradually dawned on one what a superlative and complete musician she is.
Jonatha is touring her current album, The Works, for which she was invited by Nora Guthrie, Woody’s daughter, to put music to a selection of the countless lyrics Woody left behind.
At first, it seemed an odd choice: Jonatha’s complex musical style is miles from Woody’s simple, tuneful way with a song. But it seemed to work; her more drawn out tunes put Woody’s lyrics in a new setting where we could see the brilliance of his words on their own. The power of her exceptional musicality simply made it work.
Her own songs did not suffer, though I began to appreciate the pithy, to-the-point lyrics of Woody at moments. It was all helped by her straightforward, honestly cheerful and conversational manner with the audience.
The only problem with this show was the choice of venue. St Georges is a lovely ex-church and the sound (courtesy of Stuart Amesbury’s Touch PA) was perfect, but the place was way too big and cold, cold, cold. I never took my gloves off.
The same 100 or so fans in a smaller, warmer room would have increased the intimacy factor enormously and all we would have traded was that grand piano – nice, but they make very good electric keyboards these days.

Review by Charley.