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Brentwood Bay Empourium welcomes Jon Brooks this month

Concert on Oct. 12 features Toronto-based indie folk musician
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Toronto indie troubadour Jon Brooks is on Vancouver Island for a series of house concerts, including one at Brentwood Bay Village Empourium on Thursday, Oct. 12. (Submitted)

CENTRAL SAANICH — Critically-acclaimed Toronto indie troubadour Jon Brooks is on Vancouver Island to play a series of intimate house concerts, including one at Brentwood Bay Village Empourium on Thursday, October 12.

Nominated four times for The Canadian Folk Music Awards’ English Songwriter of the Year, Brooks has released five albums and toured extensively both in Canada and Europe. His narratives captivate and provoke emotions in the same tradition as other notable Canadian singer/songwriters such as Bruce Cockburn and Fred Eaglesmith, while his vocal qualities are closer to those of Steve Earle.

Brooks’ music is topical: his most recent release, The Smiling & Beautiful Countryside, revisits the folk/blues tradition of the murder ballad, with shifting viewpoints ranging from the laissez-faire attitude of a gun dealer to the perpetrator of a mass shooting filtered through today’s headlines and his own dark, literate sense of humour. Despite this, his songs are infused with compassion.

“I know no other thing more intimately than The Song, and outside of kindness it’s the one thing in the mournful world I’ve occasionally touched that ascends with purpose, force and love, and so I stay seeking it more or less blindly.”

Brooks will joined onstage by guitarist Neil Cruickshank, co-founder of the Vancouver-based band, Brickhouse - a mainstay of the Vancouver blues and funk-revival scene.

As BBVE House Concerts are limited to 30 seats, people are asked to purchase advance tickets in person or by phone at 778-351-0178 as early as possible to avoid disappointment. Food and licensed beverage service is available from 7 p.m. with performances beginning at 8 p.m.

— Submitted