Official Website

​

Listen on Spotify

​

Toronto, Ontario, CA

​

Jon Brooks writes songs to calm those who've looked into and seen what is in their hearts; he also writes songs to terrify those who’ve not. Jon has the dubious honour of owning the record for the most nominations from The Canadian Folk Music Awards in the category of English Songwriter of the Year (2007/2009/2012/2015). In 2010 he became the 4th Canadian since 1975 to win the prestigious New Folk Award at The Kerrville Folk Festival. His seventh and latest album, Moth Nor Rust II, (Fallen Tree Records, 13.9.2019), revisits his 2009 solo acoustic set, Moth Nor Rust, with 10 years of artistic maturity and with his new band, The Outskirts of Approval.  The album, a fan favourite long out of print, begins with the idea that whatever makes us happily human happens also to be intangible: love, hope, trust, forgiveness, vigilance, faith, curiosity, memory, inspiration, courage, wonder and wonder’s paradoxical willingness to accept and embrace the ineffable and the unknown.  Jon Brooks & The Outskirts of Approval have an uncanny way of gently directing their audiences’ eyes both inward and outward on all our current existential fears and as well toward all that neither moth nor rust can touch. Moth Nor Rust II was produced by the original engineer, Jason LaPrade and co-produced by Brooks’ longtime friend, Neil Cruickshank. In Jon’s words, ‘The song is an artform that operates in time and 10 years time has a way of transforming the songs in ways worthy of rerecording.’ The Outskirts of Approval include Joe Ernewein (electric guitar), John Showman (violin), and Vivienne Wilder (upright bass and vocals).

 

“I write songs to calm those who’ve looked into, and seen, what is in their hearts.  I also write songs to terrify those who have not.” – Jon Brooks