The Courthouse is pleased to welcome back our great friend Jonathan Edwards.
Fifty years in music! Yes, it seems like quite an accomplishment. But if you look a little closer, you’ll find a boy fairly unconcerned with issues and events that most people think of as the future. You’ll see a guy who’s wondering what he did wrong to have to spend his high school years marching to English class in a military school uniform. Picture him putting down the rifle he was issued and picking up a guitar for the first time, and the look on his face when, at last, something made sense. And then, you might peer into the psyche of a young fella who loved the music of words enough to postpone the last stages of an art degree to follow his cellular desire to learn about that love and begin to understand. He understood that he was of an age to be sent against his will to southeast Asia to become a soldier. He had a different idea. Songs and the need to write them… Concerts made up of those songs and the joy of performing them in front of listening, responsive people.
These are the endeavors that propelled this young fella to follow his heart and refine his focus. Bigger and bigger audiences were soon to take notice and embrace this artist who so selflessly engaged with them. 250 shows a year in those early years. 19 albums and collaborations as evidence of his commitment. A little Broadway, a touch of acting, some producing and “50 years goes.” Formative times with the horses in Nova Scotia, a decade or so in the Caribbean with the Rastas, a stubborn adherence to the sound of bronze strings on rosewood, an abiding love of the earth and all her daily miracles; these are a few of the colors on his palette that inform the man he has now become. You will discover a certain reverence and a sardonic humor in equal measure. You will now find an outward maturity and an inner, youthful exuberance combined in an intense and contagious love of life. When asked if he ever gets weary of singing “Sunshine” or “Shanty” or any of his earlier compositions, he replies, “Every night is a new night, every crowd is a different context and every performance feels like the first time.”
So, whether it’s a “Toys For Tots” Christmas Show for forty thousand people or a house concert down the street for 25 friends and neighbors and a couple of dogs, you receive the best from this man–every time he takes the stage. These are honest emotions to which wings are attached. An authentic story of art for the sake of art. This is original music based in history and tradition. Pianos, mandolins and fiddles…harmonicas, stand-up bass and lots of guitars; the recordings and the concerts both create an environment and an atmosphere that make his singing seem effortless and a spontaneous natural occurrence. And all of this without much concern for the future.
Peace, Love and Understanding through the gift of Music.