Jerry Brookman fell in love with music as a boy in Middletown, Conn., riding shotgun in his father's old '69 Chevy pickup on their weekly trips to the dump. "We'd drive around, listening to old AM radio stations," he recalls. "I remember he had these harmonicas in the glove box, and he'd always play along to the radio. That's when I realized I wanted to start playing music."
Brookman's journey eventually led him to Easthampton, where he formed Storm the Ohio, a collective of local musicians who help him bring to life his stories of the people and places he has encountered since those childhood drives with his father. Brookman took time out recently to discuss his life in music and the release of his band's debut album, Buffalo, due out this July on Quiet Union Records.
Storm the Ohio's brand of Americana is twangy, heartfelt and bittersweet: the perfect soundtrack to sitting at the local saloon, nursing a Bud and wondering where it all went wrong and why she left. Brookman calls his tunes "completely beautiful and heartbreaking," and you can hear the emotion in the mournful guitar and his plaintive vocals.
Brookman also credits his grandparents for positively influencing his musical proclivities during his formative years: "We'd all sit around the radio on Sunday afternoon and listen to old country music stations." He cites the bands he heard coming through those speakers as direct antecedents to Storm the Ohio's music.
After leaving Connecticut at a young age Brookman traveled a bit, sampling small-town New England life and "collecting images and stories." According to Brookman, all of this meandering informed his songwriting: "Well, it's all just a big story, you know? You meet people and you live in different places and maybe something cool happens, maybe something bad or maybe nothing at all, but it's these things that shape us. We all have something to say and express—I just choose to write songs about them."
Brookman moved to Western Massachusetts with a woman he was dating—one he subsequently lost. Despite that, he decided the traveling was done, and settled in Easthampton. Luckily, he quickly fell in with kindred souls who could help him bring his stories to stage and record. "It was dumb luck I guess," Brookman says. "I had met Matt Cullen a few years ago. I was always a huge fan of his playing, and I asked him if he wanted to play lead guitar on this record I was making. Then we got Mike Wyzik and Jimmy Elliott of The Red Door Exchange; then things started to come together. We added Thane Thomsen on piano and keyboards and that's pretty much it."
"Jerry's songs are a joy to play," says bandmate Thomsen. "There's a generous tangle of original simplicity evinced in them. They are utterly sincere without ever putting the 'bare ass' in embarrassing, which is hard to do at this stage of the game. Plus he's got such a sweet and versatile voice. He keeps it mellow for the most part, but Storm the Ohio is certainly capable of rocking out. I'm particularly thrilled with how the new songs are evolving. They are folksy and psychedelic at the same time."
While he knows where his tunes come from, Brookman does not like to get too philosophical about the songwriting process itself. "I try to not think about it too much. I just let it happen. As soon as I start thinking about it, then I quit, because I'm just not there. I may as well go mow the lawn or something. I have songs that have taken me two minutes to write and others that have taken years. It's really something that just comes when it wants to and there is nothing that you can do about it."
Storm the Ohio recorded their debut CD with Eddie Downey in Easthampton. "Ed is the greatest person I have ever met," says Brookman. "He recorded, produced and mixed our record at his Cranberry Field Studios right here in town."
Brookman feels like this album is the realization of the music he's been dreaming about his entire life, and Buffalo finds him laying down some mean harmonica—just like his daddy did.
For more information on Storm the Ohio shows and the new album, visit www.myspace.com/stormtheohio.
