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Jonathan Edwards - April 28, 2012
Warm as summer sunshine, real as the truth, intimate as a long overdue visit between old friends … such is a Jonathan Edwards concert. Four decades into a stellar career of uncompromising musical integrity, the man simply delivers, night after night - songs of passion, songs of insight, songs of humor, all rendered in that pure and powerful tenor which, like fine wine, has only grown sweeter with age.
This is one veteran performer who is neither grizzled nor nostalgic. These days Jonathan Edwards, a vital and relevant artist in today's folk and Americana scenes, is much more likely to be found looking forward rather than back. Still, the journey that has brought him to towns and theaters all over the globe -- perhaps one near you tonight - is well worth revisiting.
Eventually the draw of the music proved stronger than establishment expectations, and Jonathan left college in 1968 to pursue the dream. Selling the car his father had loaned him for school, he bought a van to accommodate his band and headed east to Boston and its happening folk music scene.
Jonathan's initiative and dedication soon paid off, and he found himself opening for national acts, including the Allman Brothers Band and B. B. King. This exposure attracted the attention of Capricorn Records, and he was placed under contract with them. "We took about a year recording the first album - different times, different studios, different sounds, different techniques," he recalls. "Recording was so new in '69 and '70. There was a song on the album called 'Please Find Me,' and for some reason the engineer rolled over it. It got erased. We spent hours looking for it. We fired the engineer and put 'Sunshine' in its place."
Today Jonathan says, "It's never been real important to me who wrote a song … . It's about the song, the flow of the lyrics, and how the lyrics are married to the chords and the melody and the rhythm. It's all about that, not so much who wrote it. That's why, over the course of my recording career, I'll bet pretty close to fifty percent of the songs on my records have been written by somebody else. And I'm okay with that. People have a problem with that, but I don't."
On the verge of his fifth decade in the music business, Jonathan Edwards shows no sign of turning into a "Sit Down Rock and Roll Man." Upcoming plans include new markets, new audiences, new songs, and a new studio recording. As this barefoot troubadour prepares for the next stage of his journey, you are more than welcome to join him for an evening or two as he continues to make good on that promise he made all the way back in 1971: "Sunshine, come on back another day … I promise you I'll still be singing."
Learn more about Jonathan at his web site www.jonathanedwards.net.
