John Brooks Music

John Nelson (Hauschild)

Born and raised in the "Windy City", John O. Nelson was exposed to the musical melting pot that filled the airwaves of that mid-western city. Piano lessons, singing in boy's choir at church and years on the trumpet in school orchestra honed his ability to recognize and create quality sounds. Blues, Soul , R & B, Country, Folk and Rock 'n Roll shared early influence and they all managed to find their way into teenaged jam sessions.
Leaving Chicago for good in his late teens, John's twentieth birthday found him in Boulder, CO where, over the next ten years, he fronted or shared leadership in numerous incarnations of country/R & B-based bands that played all the regional venues. All along, John Nelson developed a love and flair for composing songs in many genres, but always with Country/R & B roots. (He received the "Best Song of the Year" award in an A & M Records sponsored competition for the Denver area.). A promising opportunity developed in Los Angeles and John moved West to pursue his dream. What seemed fool proof eventually floundered. With Los Angeles seeming to offer little more than smog and traffic, John left for the open spaces of Oregon where he continued to write songs and perform in Northwestern venues.
A chance meeting with the legendary King Solomon Burke at the Portland, OR Waterfront Blues Festival developed into onstage musical magic during Solomon's gospel set on Sunday. Since that time, John O. Nelson has performed, on occasion, as a backing and featured vocalist with Burke's "Soul's Alive Orchestra". One of the shows was at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles as opening act for The Rolling Stones.
John is now ½ of the driving force behind the band
‘bLUESdUSTERS’ and continues to work on his solo studio project for Solomon Burke’s ‘The One’ production company. The newly formed ‘John Brooks Music’ is a publishing company co-owned with his wife, and fellow songwriter, Brooks.

Brooks Garten (Hauschild)

Born in New Orleans, LA and raised in the South, Brooks spent much of her formative years singing in the church choirs where her father was a Baptist preacher. As a young girl, she spent long hours listening to her parent’s gospel (Ethel Waters) and country music (Red Foley) recordings. Always drawn to the creative side of life, Brooks showed innate musical and artistic talent as a child and became a prolific, self-taught artist. She has lived and worked in southern Oregon since 1985.
During the early 80’s, Brooks studied acting, singing and dancing at Lee Strasburg Theatre Institute in West Hollywood and filled some nights singing at the Roosevelt Hotel and Donte’s Jazz Club. After moving to Ashland, OR and taking a ’side-trip’ into the world of broadcast communications, Brooks graduated SOU in 1988 (summa cum laude), receiving an A-P Honorable Mention Award in radio news along the way. While pursuing her degree, creating her music and exhibiting her art, she also did some singing and acting, appearing in a number of local TV commercials and film/video productions.
In addition to songwriting, singing and painting, Brooks is composing some solo piano pieces for a future CD project. A sampling of her visual art is available at:
www.originalartwork.org