Every so often an artist comes along that you want to scream from the rooftops for everyone to listen to them. Its a rare occurrence and this is only the second time in 2013 that this has really happened for me (given how much music comes through the email inbox, that’s pretty impressive).
When I first heard Jonah Tolchin, he was playing on a local radio station with another one of my favorite songwriters and people, Dan Blakeslee. In between tunes, the two were talking about this and that, Tolchin seemed to be a rather unassuming character. Somewhat soft spoken, humble and just happy to be anywhere playing his music for a set of ears willing to listen. He then told his story about the song he was about to perform and how it came from weaving an engagement ring out of grass for his fiancee-to-be. The lyrics, the delivery, his voice, everything just fell into place for me in that instant and I immediately became a fan of this man’s music.
Diving deeper into his catalogue, I found a man after my own heart in that much of his music has a dark, folk thematic to it. Life isn’t all peaches and cream and Jonah is mighty good at putting those feelings to melody. With a deep, rich voice and a strongly picked blues inspired folk sound, he weaves tales of love, loss, and the occasional bright song for good measure. This piece isn’t a review, or in promotion for a gig, just a general “you really need to give this guy a listen”. I plead that you go and check out his music, I guarantee you will be as moved as I was from his art and find something in his music that a lot of other music out there lacks. He is just a wonderful, wonderful songwriter and performer.
Admittedly, it should not have taken me this long to find this songwriter, but I am damn glad that I did…
