Another one of those "are we talking about the same person" moments

Several years ago I saw Jonatha Brooke perform at a record convention. She was an up and coming young singer and her distributor had paid dearly to showcase its artists at the big awards banquet. I remember slipping off to drink gin with one of the Billboard critics (well, in case he reads this and protests, let the record state that said critic did not join me for gin, but only to talk about music). Neither of us were that impressed. She was good, but not great, and certainly had a long way to go.

So, imagine my surprise when I read this from Terry Teachout. My first thought was "Jonatha Brooke?!? Really?" Then my second thought was "hmmm. Perhaps it was one of the other singers that night that I am thinking about," followed by, "no, it was definitely Jonatha Brooke."

She did seem to have that diamond in the rough (very rough - so rough that were I the executive producer, I probably would have passed on her, figuring that the diamond would turn out to just be some shiny coal) character. Since I find that while I disagree with Teachout on many points of classical music, I tend to see eye to eye with him on jazz and popular music, I need to check out this record. It would be great to hear that she has evolved into a singer who made such an impression on Terry Teachout.

UPDATE: I followed the link on the link I gave and found this line:

"Don't bother if you don't care for female singer-songwriters of the Joni Mitchell/Aimee Mann/Allison Moorer/Ani DiFranco variety, but if you do, check her out."

Ah-hah! I think I see where we might part in our tastes. I run hot and cold with female singer-songwriters. I like Joni Mitchell, but the rest tend to bore me, with Ani DiFranco driving me up the walls, and not just for her college-counterkulchur-chic-cat-poo-in-knots hair, nor for her political tendencies, but for her songs and her voice. I do admire her business acumen, however. She is one sharp girl when it comes to taking charge of her own career (and I also admire her leveraging her considerable market clout in solidarity with other labels who share her distributor, but that is another story, and not one I want to get into here). But the Brooke thing might just be a lukewarmness on my part to wanting to hear women strum guitars while singing about their feelings (although I am even more annoyed by men who strum guitars while singing about their feelings - one street singer who has been driving me crazy in North Beach comes to mind (and he also has that college-counterkulchur-chic-cat-poo-in-knots hair)).