Jonatha Brooke is one of those artists whose name always sounds familiar - if only because, really, how many people named “Jonatha” do you know? - but whose music you may not be familiar with…though, frankly, you really should be. She’s a talented singer-songwriter who first got her career rolling in the early ’90s as a member of a duo called The Story, with collaborator Jennifer Kimball, but Brooke soon stood on her own two feet and has trotted out album after album … some on major labels, some on indies … to critical acclaim and a decidedly diehard following. Popdose had the opportunity to speak with Brooke, and we took full advantage of it, asking her about as much of her back catalog as time allowed, quizzing her about how she recently came to collaborate with the late Woody Guthrie (and whether she could even concentrate with the awareness of what Billy Bragg and Wilco had already done with the man’s lyrics), and wondering where she stands on the state of the music industry today.

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Various Artists - Largo (1998)
purchase this album

Before telling you how much I love this album, and how I’ve hung onto it since stumbling across it in a used bin in the spring of ‘98, I will tell you what it is:

1. A full-length tribute to Antonin Dvorak’s From the New World.
2. Mostly written by Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, also known as the creative engine that drives the Hooters.
3. Featuring special guests including Cyndi Lauper and Joan Osborne.

So now that I’ve gotten that out of the way — and you’re probably thinking this is something you’d never want to hear — let’s talk about why Largo is better than it has any right to be. Let’s talk, first, about Dvorak. For the sake of making things easy for me, I’ll assume you know nothing at all about nineteenth-century classical composers, and begin by telling you that Dvorak was one. Specifically, he was a Czech nineteenth-century classical composer, which makes him seem like a bit of an odd choice for a ’90s pop tribute, but appearances can be deceiving. (more…)