While driving to pick up Elias from daycare, I was listening to mixed CD of Jonatha Brooke songs that I made several years ago for Jessica. Have you heard of Jonatha? She once belonged to a band called the Story. But since the late 90s, she’s been singing solo.

Anyway, I’ve loved Jonatha since the mid-90s when a girl I had a crush on named Tammi introduced me to The Story. At first, I only loved her because I thought it would improve my chances with Tammi, but that changed when the twelfth time poor Tammi told me she wasn’t interested in marrying me. (Not that we ever dated-long story.)

But the one thing I took away from my friendship with Tammi was a love for Jonatha.

Jonatha Brooke is this week’s person you should know.

JB’s first solo record 10 Cent Wings is still, in my opinion, brilliant. The following song, Secrets and Lies, was the first song on that record… listen to its lyrics…

Her next record (released in 2001) was called Steady Pull. I was the Music and Entertainment editor at Crosswalk.com when that record released and I used “my position” as an excuse to interview Jonatha. Here’s a short portion of that conversation…

Matthew: Do you think your songs have an intended message, or do you kind of let the listener get what they want out of it?

Jonatha: It’s kind of funny, because I was talking about that with my class today. We were talking about all the range of different kinds of songs that you write in a career. Even on this record there are some that are very elliptical, and I intentionally left them that way. I didn’t want the listener to know everything. I wanted there to be a kind of mystery to, say, a song like Lullaby, or something like Walking. So, there are those songs that I have very deep emotions about what I was intending, and who I was sort of pointing at when I was writing it, but I didn’t want that to be in the song, I wanted that to remain poetic and a little bit mysterious, for the audience to just kind of fill it in. And then for songs like Linger, which is pretty clear, and Red Dress, which is pretty clear, and you know that was great for me, too, to write a really clear song or Out of your Mind, you know, “look at you, you’re out of your mind again! you’re high as a kite again.”

Matthew: So when it comes to people, Jonatha, are you a skeptic?

Jonatha: People in general?

Matthew: Yeah, because I sense skepticism in your songs.

Jonatha: Well, I mean, I’m constantly disappointed (laughter). No, I’m skeptical, but I’m also constantly amazed. You know, I think a song like Your House refutes the skepticism, because it’s just so loving and, you know it’s so simple and clear and pretty and it’s just this waltz of dreaminess. And also New Dress, I mean, there’s a little bit of darkness in the verses, but could you get more romantic in the chorus?

Matthew: Is there something symbolic about “dress”? You use it three times that I’ve counted, two in the title and then once again in How Deep is Your Love?

Jonatha: Well, there was. I think that definitely, my theme of the record is this kind of idea of putting on new clothing, you know, of shaking off the old and really stepping into the new, and so that’s why the dress thing kept coming up. And in Red Dress it’s like, “OK, you have this picture of me, and you think I’m evil, and I’ve done wrong but I’m out of here.” And thenNew Dress is just, I had this image and I thought, “OK, maybe this is too obvious” and I’m a little squeamish about it, but I couldn’t get it out of my head, this idea of, you know, your lover, someone that you’re just passionately in love with. Being that comfortable with someone that you’re standing in front of the window with the light on and they take off your uniform … you’ll have to hear the song. It’s beautiful.

In the song Walking, you ask the question “Where the hell is grace?” What is grace to you?”

Jonatha: Yeah, Who is grace? Grace, yeah. Grace is peace, grace is compassion and empathy and classiness and chivalry and consistency and charm and panache and grace is all those things that seem to be getting lost. And I’m finding them in Denmark! There’s something about America where we really have lost that sense of grace.

Matthew: With each other, with ourselves. And it doesn’t give us the freedom to have grace with ourselves, because you know we have very little grace with each other.

Jonatha: Yeah, I really think it’s a selfish time.

ANYWAY, yesterday I was listening to Jonatha’s song “Prodigal Daughter,” a haunting, very personal song with dark lyric that reveals Jonatha’s painful past in regards to faith and religiosity…

You can listen to a small clip of the song here…

But here’s the lyric.

I spent all the money, I spent all the money
Got nothing to show, got nothing to show for it
So tell me the story, tell me the story again
The one where I find my way home in the end
There’s love and forgiveness, there’s wine and there’s water

I am the prodigal daughter

I am searching the heavens, I’m living in hell
I’ve squandered the blessing, I am the never do well
I walked on a wire, I tried every trick that I dared
Broke every promise to whoever cared
Burned all my bridges, like a lamb to the slaughter

I am the prodigal daughter

I have yet to see grace
Or true mercy face to face
Through a glass, not a trace
So I am out of the race

And I’ll never go back, they’ll not see my face again
I’m not like my brothers, and god knows I’m not like them
So you can tell me the story, it makes no difference to me
So the blind man can walk and the lame man can see
The party’s still over, the wine’s turned to water

I am the prodigal daughter

Can you relate? Do you know a prodigal daughter? Do you feel like a prodigal daughter?

Jonatha’s honesty in this song is something a lot of people relate to. For some of us, it might hurt to hear her say some of those things. But I think we need to hear them.

And I hope we listen. And learn. And grow. And remember that, how we talk about Jesus matters. How we portray Jesus matters. Because let’s face it… most people don’t run from Jesus… they run from how Christians portray Jesus. And I get that; I run, too.

Jonatha Brooke is this week’s person you should know. Who’s somebody you believe the world should know?