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The record first took shape in Fox’s Williamsburg, Brooklyn basement studio with
husband and fellow musician Kurt Gellersted.
Of the 10 new songs, almost half of them are collaborations, marking a shift in Fox’s once-private universe of writing. The result is a more worldly, mature and tempered set of songs, where the prevailing theme is the “rush of falling in love”. The album opens with “Cinematic”, a grand, pulsating rock anthem and homage to the “movie-moments” in everyday life. Beautifully soaked in nostalgia, “Breathe The Same Air” is a waltzy lullaby, detailing the discovery of a lover’s well-preserved childhood room.
On first glance, the strikingly pale Fox, glowing under the stage lights, is simply fair-skinned but her lilywhite features are actually albinism, a rare genetic trait that also causes legal blindness and sensitivity to light. Brooke has spoken to schools and community groups about albinism and made major press appearances (Fox
News, CNN, KROQ) on behalf of NOAH (The National Organization of Albinism and Hypopigmentation) to raise awareness in the face of the motion picture release of The Da
Vinci Code which marks the 68th “Evil Albino” character to appear in cinema
since 1960.
“’Change Me’…is the ghost of Christina Olsen (of Andrew Wyeth’s painting “Christina’s World”) speaking through me”, says Fox. After researching the back-story, Fox discovered Christina’s incredible courage though her body was slowly degenerating from an unknown illness. Inspired on countless levels, the song rings with dignity and character. “Christina was the one degree of separation I needed to finally write and sing about my own disability for the first time”.
Remarkably, little 5-year-old Brooke seemed to thrive in the bright flood of the spotlight, performing through her childhood years in Northern California. Fox’s obsession with song craft was founded early. She began creating her own music in front of the Fox family piano at the age of eight and went on to earn her Bachelor’s Degree in Songwriting at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. She then relocated to Nashville after graduation and recorded her first album “NightLight” in 1999 before heading to New York in 2000.
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HOMETOWN:
Vacaville,
CA
CURRENT
HOME:
Brooklyn,
NY
HER
GUITAR:
Taylor
714CE
NYC
VENUES PLAYED:
Knitting
Factory, Cutting
Room, Living Room, Bitter End, BMI
Acoustic Roundup, NY Songwriters Circle ASCAP Pop Song workshop
“A bell-like
voice and powerful arrangements. Contemporary Folk at its best!”
– Tom May, River City Folk (NPR)
MAJOR
CITIES PLAYED:
NY,
LA, Boston, San Francisco, Nashville, Chicago, Sacramento, Atlanta, Seattle,
Toronto, Philadelphia, Madison.
24
States & 4 Countries
so far.
COLLEGE
SHOWS:
UConn,
Boston University, Franklin & Marshall, Goucher,
Simon’s Rock, St. Cloud State,
College of NJ, Stevens Inst. of Technology.
CONFERENCES
/ FESTIVALS:
2NMC,
MMC, ROCKRGRL, MECA, NXNE, Dewey Beach Fest.
“A Crystal clear voice, poetic grace and a maturity that runs deep in talent”.
-Richard Cuccaro, Acoustic Live
RADIO
/ TV APPEARANCES:
FoxNews, CNN,
Fox5-NY, Entertainment Tonight: The Insider, NY1, NPR, XM,
KROQ, River City Folk with Tom May, RadioCrystalBlue, WRPS, Buzz/102.9: Nashville, WMTS, The Medium
AWARDS:
06' Just Plain Folks Award: #3 "Female Singer /
Songwriter Album", CDBABY
#53 Best Seller: 8/05, ‘04-‘05-'06 ASCAPlus Award, ‘04 Great American Song Contest: Honor Award, ‘04 Just
Plain Folks Award: “Best Vocal Jazz Song”, ‘03
Billboard Song Contest: Honorable Mention (two songs), Lilith Fair
Acoustic Talent Search: Nashville Finalist,
Berklee Songwriting Achievement Award.
"This young
woman is a poet on fire"
- Laurel Boland of Sensored Magazine.
SHARED
THE STAGE WITH:
Vienna
Teng, Mindy Smith,
Richard Julian, Regina Spektor.
DISABILITY
ADVOCACY:
UN Disability Convention at NYC City Hall, US Dept. of
the Treasury: Disability Day, Enable America:
Community Meeting,
Nat’l Fed of the Blind: Nat'l
Convention, Nat’l Org of
Albinism (NOAH), CA Youth Leadership Forum, ADA: 10th, 15th Anniversary. |
With a “strong yet vulnerable” set of songs drawing mentions to The Sundays, Patty Griffin and Ricky Lee Jones, Brooklyn songwriter Brooke Fox’s effortless vocals and direct lyrics draw a decidedly optimistic reality of relationships and human response. Her second self-produced record, “BREATHE THE SAME AIR” released July 2005,
