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"From the opening song, Lorna grabbed the audience with her exceptional, distinctive, powerful voice and delivery. She wooed the attentive listeners early on with a selection of her well known songs, such as the brilliant Tired, and held them in awe with an amazing, heartfelt rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah." BBC website
" Brooks is an accomplished guitarist, who’s like a sultry Nina Simone, with the ability to hit a note that young Streisand would be proud of, add a soulful helping of Jazz that to me is Lorna Brooks " - www.rootsreview.co.uk
"With little more than a 12 string acoustic and a songbird sweet voice, Lorna delivers note perfect renditions of her own songs in a voice that soars and dips in a complex weave of melodies and harmonies. " - Evening News
"Lorna Brooks has the kind of voice youd want to spend the rest of your life with " - Record Mirror
ABOUT LORNA
Lorna was born in Glasgow. Her mother was a pianist and a music teacher and her father, who sadly was tone deaf, had a huge appreciation for music (especially jazz) and a very large record collection. This influenced Lorna’s early years and at quite a young age she grudgingly set off to piano lessons (much preferring to play footie with the boys next door!).
Through her school years she also learnt to play trumpet and not until her final year, was it recognized that she could sing.
On leaving school Lorna went to Dundee to study Music where she was rather bored with the course, as classical music was not really her thing, and therefore when suggested, she jumped at the opportunity to play bass guitar in a jazz/funk ensemble.
On returning to Glasgow Lorna overheard a barman talking about his band and with a bit of brass neck asked him if he needed a backing vocalist, No!, how about a keyboard player, No!, maybe a bit of trumpet (she was getting desperate), well actually YES they did. Here started Lorna’s apprenticeship in pop music.
Trumpet in the ’Plastic Flies’ (a punk band) then keyboard and backing vocals in ’Back at the Front’ on to her main want, lead vocals in ’Julia Please’ . What a great time she had. It was during this time that her reputation was growing and she was being asked to do sessions for other bands and recording projects, including backing vocals for one of her heroes, John Martyn .
On to the next musical collaboration Brooks a 2 year recording project experimenting solely with acoustic instruments, with the end product being an album of 14 tracks. Unfortunately no record company signings occurred and Lorna got a bit despondent and moved from band work into theatre where she performed in Wildcat Productions , composed and performed with Clyde Unity Theatre Co. , and was Musical Director for various theatre companies in Scotland.
Missing singing, Lorna decided to work hard and develop her guitar playing - falling in love with the sound of the acoustic 12-string - and go it alone. Writing a whole new batch of songs and releasing her debut EP Easier Being Lovers , she started gigging again and was lucky enough to be the tour support to:
-Loudon Wainwright III, Horse, The Rankin Family, Jimmy Sommerville, Janis Ian, Michael Marra, Shawn Colvin, Martin Stephenson, Iris de Ment, James Grant, Sharon Shannon, Bjorn Again, The McCluskey Bros, Bert Jansch, Tuck and Patti and Beth Nilson Chapman .
Sadly this all came to an abrupt end when Lorna slipped her disc for the third time and after about a year of excruciating pain discovered that the disc was prolapsed and had to be removed. After a few months recuperation, came the sad loss of her father and Lorna took some more time out from gigging.
"Onwards and upwards to infinity and beyond" (her favourite ’Toy story’ quote) Lorna released her debut solo album ’Kowtow’ and just after it’s release was invited over to the USA to play in St. Louis and Chicago.
Following this she recorded an acoustic solo album ’Just’ . and continued to gig throughout the UK.
She also had the opportunity to support and accompany Horse (playing piano, guitar and singing backing vocals) on a British tour and had the honour to guest with Eric Bibb at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh.
Lorna has finished recording her third album which will be out soon.
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