It's a hit man!

Have you Heard Jonathan? For me it was an age ago, on the stern of a 38' sloop in Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, beneath a Caribbean canopy.  Jonathan let loose a musical soul, entertaining the swashbucklers.  A time later I heard Jonathan had gone professional with the music.  Curious, I searched him out, found him playing a gig in a coffee shop in a one street town upstate New Hampshire.  Five people when I walked in and I made six. Jonathan played to us like we were 600 – full out rock and roll with humor in between. Impressive…

I grabbed his first release Launch.  That CD played me across miles of Americana on a 2003 cross-country camping trip.  Since then Jonathan has toured in the States and in Europe, and more importantly continued to be prolific.  Jonathan's 2007 release Siren Call blew me away.  Every time I sit in as DJ and Host for a rock and roll themed show on WOMR, Jonathan Auerbach is on my play list.  For many months, two Siren Call beauties Keepin' It Real and The Dark opened and closed my show “Funny Thing” on WOMR.

 Range, depth, beats, twists, and licks… On Heard, Jonathan Auerbach deftly mixes a voice of piercing lyrics with soaring music.  The guitars of Jonathan, Tim Galloway, and the bass of George Hawkins Jr. put fingers in motion on your air-guitar as your feet slide on the floor. Angelo Collura's earthy drums give the hips the bounce they need to be free. Plus we get these mesmerizing background vocals from Carole Charlin…

 Heard opens with Good Now, a range-showcasing tune.  Jonathan then sets the show a'going with Etiquette, “I'll be a man about it and make you forget your etiquette.” Still Going Strong smacks at cop-outs and what happens when you don't.  The bridge to the build is the Jamaican -tinted rocker The Soul: we're not alone, baby.  Now buckle your seat belts, ahh forget that, you'll just bust them out!  Distant Drumming awakens another level!  Animal Attraction soars to the heart of the matter.  With “It's not who takes that ride, but who returns,” Overboard is a Nantucket sleighride.  Man Gone Mad, one of my very favorites, 'cause it could be me!  In Maris, Me And The Sea, Jonathan sets his spyglass on what's happening now.  Rock and Roll and the troops -  Brave Woman, Brave Man pays homage to once girls and boys now caught in the nightmare.  Man, how does he top this?  And then I Heard The Better Music, a celebratory swing of hidden sorrow --  it's a hit, man.  The whole shebang from beginningto end, oh yeah, the end, with Thin Ice,  Jonathan is acoustically back in that Tortola harbor singing to the pirate in all of us.  Beautiful…

Tom Brogan, Host of the "Funny Thing" -- WOMR 92.1 FM -- Provincetown, MA