Brenda Brink

(A list of venues where I have performed appears at the end of this biography.)

In contrast to the excitement that characterizes my music, my life began on the humble and desolate plains of northwest North Dakota. The only excitement I can recall from those early days involved wagering on whether or not the brutal wind from Montana would blow our mobile home into Minnesota or on how far one of the neighborhood dogs was willing to run in the frigid darkness before he could manage to find something tall enough to pee on. God blessed the bitches; they made a fast circle just beyond the porch, squatted, and zoomed back to the comfort of the couch next to the wood stove.

Music for me began with the eerie melodies that this same penetrating wind composed as it swirled snow around the few elevated elements in this barren landscape. From this ghostly howling I developed a longing to reproduce similar flowing aural images with the strings of the guitar.

As a child I relentlessly stroked the strings until my beautiful slim fingers were disfigured and calloused, resembling pronto-pups more than the digits of a fine musician.

I could say that I joined the circus or married a Marine to escape from North Dakota, but those would be lies. I played may way to freedom and warmer weather. Until then, the heat generated by my frenzied plucking, tweaking and bending of strings and the tears expended as I composed heartfelt lyrics kept me warm.

Men hurried my transition to maturity, some brutal and thoughtless, some warm and sincere, but all of them alluring, tantalizing and punishing. They all insisted that I was exquisite in form. A few appreciated the magic of my poetry and music. One ventured to discover and revel in the raw beauty of my soul.

Days led to weeks, months, and finally to years as I explored the music of others and ultimately defined and mastered my own style. I was afforded some of the joys and splendor that living can offer, along with all of its tragedies and disappointments. All of this came to be expressed in my songs and carried me forward to not only persist, but reach new levels of professional and artistic achievement. In spite of my successes, these same experiences brought me closer to the fundamental truths that describe my life and those of my fellow man.

Yes, my fellow man continued to include all of those same miserable wretches who sought to pester and exploit me in a variety of ways, but among them were those who moved me and impacted me in a number of other ways. People influenced my music and personal philosophy positively.

I loved the dependable warmth of the sun on my face, but found that nothing could compare to the breathtaking beauty of trillium and pussy willow in the spring after the scourge of winter. Nothing provided a richer venue for self reflection or better instilled the essential beginnings for creative songwriting than the pungent and aromatic smells that rise from fermenting leaves in the fall. Nothing can more effectively serve to remind us that we remain living, breathing and feeling beings than bitter wind, the glare of the sun off the whitest snow and the firmness of the crust beneath our feet.

And so I returned to the northland, but to a place where trees offer some protection from the bitter wind and dogs are not forced to run so far.

Recordings, gigs and the stage fill my life, but it’s the people that sustain me. The people I encounter on the road and the people I leave behind when I’m gone are what keep me going, and of course, the music.

Who could ask for more than an ability to make music? To convey the soft reassurances that bleed from the heart. To declare harsh political and social sarcasm and criticism that spiral from the brain in a manner that transcends simple speech.

And so, blow the dust from this pearl and see what the little girl from the windswept plains can do with a guitar and a microphone.

I have performed at many venues in the Vancouver, BC area, and in northwestern Washinton, including:
Behind the Scenes Artist Cafe, Vancouver BC
Three Trees Coffee House, Bellingham WA
The Hopvine Pub, Seattle WA
Madison's Cafe, Seattle WA
The Butchershop, Vancouver BC
Bay Street Coffee, Bellingham WA
Althea's, Mt. Vernon WA
Bean Around the World, Vancouver, BC
The Maple Ridge Art Centre Theatre, Maple Ridge BC
Bainbridge Island Artist Studio Tour, Bainbridge Is., WA
WISE Hall, Vancouver BC (opening for CR Avery Band & and Mark Berube)
The Ridge Coffee, Maple Ridge, BC
"The Drift" Art Walk, Vancouver BC
Glen Valley Hot Rod Burnout & BBQ, Glen Valley, BC
Pegasus Coffee House, Bainbridge Island, WA
Javanet Coffee, Vancouver, BC
Summer Dream Reading Festival, Vancouver, BC