Jonatha Brooke

Jonatha Brooke (born January 23, 1964) is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and guitarist from Massachusetts, United States.

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.

Jonatha Brooke attended Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Commonwealth School in Boston.

Jonatha Brooke and fellow Bostonian Jennifer Kimball 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 (the duo's principal songwriter) 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.

She graduated from Amherst College in 1985.

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.

Brooke was sometimes grouped with emerging 1990s talents such as the Indigo Girls, Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin, and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

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 [for 10 Cent Wings] 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.

She recalled: "I realized nothing 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. 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.

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.

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."

On her first solo effort Plumb (1995) People Magazine noted that "Brooke glides through poignant, multifaceted songs with her sweet, insinuating voice. The effect, on limpid compositions such as "Nothing Sacred" and "Inconsolable," is both ravishing and heartbreakingly sad."

Her followup 10 Cent Wings earned her a review in Billboard Magazine, which declared that "10 Cent Wings is essential, like taking a deep breath after witnessing something magnificent."

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 2000.

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".

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" (with background vocals from Crowded House frontman Neil Finn) was about a newfound romantic bliss.