Brooke Sharkey - A Taste of Truth

  by Lisa Torem

published: 5 / 9 / 2010

Label: LilBee
Format: CDS

intro

Confident ans flawless five song EP from young acoustic singer-songwriter, Brooke Sharkey

The cover of her 5 track EP, ‘A Taste of Truth’ finds 22 year-old Brooke Sharkey sitting cross-legged, leaning over her acoustic guitar, in front of a brick building; wildflowers and baubles hang from her auburn hair. This singer/guitarist/songwriter’s confident visual image irrevocably matches the contents within. This rising star, who has been compared to Nora Jones and Tracy Chapman, and has been a frequent guest at Glastonbury, uses her bilingual French/English skills to season several of her songs. But, the code-switching is so subtle, that, regardless of your language dominance, you’ll hardly notice when one lingo replaces the other. The language fragments meld together like sand slowly turning to glass. ‘If We Were Water,’ the opening track, is flawless and shows off her mellifluous voice; the French accentuations bring out the meaning of this moving metaphor, making it even more vibrantly touching. The final track ‘Les Amorueux’ takes stock of all of her skills; the melody is alluring, her voice takes on an old-world vibrato seldom heard in today’s pop scene, and she takes her sweet time shaping the ballad. In essence, ‘A Taste of Truth’ has a way of slowing down the traffic and gridlock outside. Sharkey’s lovely, but “less is more” finger-picking adds just enough flavouring to these poignant tracks, too. Having been exposed to a variety of contemporary and traditional singers at an early age (chasing her musical father on his jaunts helped as well), Sharkey’s singing detonates shades of Edith Piaf, Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell. Sharkey lived in France where she immersed herself in Reynaud; her travels also led her to Europe, South America and India. In ‘Our Ways’ she seems to revisit and draw epic strength from the stylings of American scat. It’s not much of a stretch to believe the story that producer Mike Connaris heard the acoustic minstrel’s entrancing pipes float through an open window in Carnaby Street. Connaris and colleague/producer Chris Bond paired up to create this EP which followed her first live album ‘Hollow Tree.’ Sharkey seems to have designed a new genre for contemporary singer-songwriters; perhaps by combing through Gallic countryside’s and being positively open to what preceded her and what lies in the future, and, of course, by brimming over with natural talent.

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