Brushfire Fairytales

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Brushfire Fairytales
Doremi Music USA
Marketplace (36 New & Used)
  1. Audio CD: Release Date 2011-04-12
  2. Publisher: Everloving
  3. Artist: Jack Johnson
  4. Format: Original recording remastered
  5. Sales Rank in Music: #3141

Product Review

From its humble beginnings, Brushfire Fairytales
launched the meteoric career of singer/songwriter Jack
Johnson. It has sold over two million albums in the
US, and continues to be one of the best sellers in his
catalog. Now, the album returns home to Everloving, the
label that started it all, and has been remastered with
Bernie Grundman Mastering.

Jack Johnson: vocals, guitars, piano
Adam Topol: drums, percussion
Merlo Podlewski: bass
Ben Harper: slide guitar (appears courtesy of Virgin Records America)

Amazon.com

Fans of Willy Porter, Ben Harper, and G. Love will all want to check out Jack Johnson's engaging folk- and blues-inflected pop. Born in Oahu, Hawaii, Johnson, a former surfer and film-school graduate, has a knack for acoustic ballads whose calm surfaces hide a subtle but strong lyrical undertow. "It seems to me that 'maybe' pretty much always means 'no,'" sings Johnson on "Flake," which features crony Harper on slide guitar. Production by J.P. Plunier (who also handles Harper's recordings) is simple and uncluttered: acoustic guitar and drum tracks share the foreground with Johnson's easygoing vocals, which evoke everyone from G. Love (who recorded Johnson's "Rodeo Clowns" on his Philadelphonic album) to Nick Drake to Willy Porter. And while Johnson may not have Porter's guitar chops, these songs have a relaxed beauty and understated depth that reward repeated listening. --Bill Forman
Title Tracks for Brushfire Fairytales

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (493 customer reviews)

107 of 113 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice acoustic set by a future star, January 27, 2003
Donovan Juan (Perth, WA Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Brushfire Fairytales (Audio CD)
Being a person whose favourite genres of music are Soul and Avant-garde Jazz, sometimes a break is needed from the ever-amazing art created by soul artists and the mad cacaphony of white noise created by avant-gardists. Increasingly, I am a fan of the acoustic guitar in it simplicity, especially if it is one of only a few instruments. Singer/Songwriter James Taylor springs to mind as an artist who I really enjoy listening to. He can make you calm after a storm just by playing his guitar and singing a song with his soothing voice. An artist who I discovered while talking to some surfer friends was Jack Johnson. I decided to give him a go, and I found his album to be just the thing I was looking for. With his trio of guitar, bass and drums, this is a real acoustic album through and through. Brushfire Fairytales is like a cross between James Taylor's mellow singer/songwriter work and the slightly more upbeat work of Ben Harper (only slightly). Even Jack's singing style is like a...Read more


68 of 71 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great debut, February 25, 2003
Levi Stofer "_leon_" (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Brushfire Fairytales (Audio CD)
I first heard Jack Johnson on a bootlegged live recording. The quality was horrible, but something about it compelled me to go out and buy his cd. For me, this is very unusual. But there was just something about Johnson's mellow sound that made me feel good. And Brushfire Fairytales is no exception. From start to finish, the cd makes me want to drive down to the beach and just enjoy the little things in life. The best part about it is that Jack's lyrics will also make you think. Songs like "The News", "Posters", and "It's All Understood" will leave you saying, "Yeah, I've felt that way before!" but maybe never vocalized it. Jack tends to pick up on those little things that some of us have trouble putting into words. That's one of my favorite things about him. That and his complex phrasing. The rhythmic vocals fit perfectly with the guitar, bass, and drums. It's almost like he uses his voice as another percussion instrument at times.I must...Read more


22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars If I could give this ten stars, I would!, November 20, 2001
face02 (Schaumburg, IL United States) - See all my reviews
It has taken me a while to review this album, because I have had a hard time coming up with the words that would express the joy I feel everytime I listen to this album. This is not just an excellent debut album. This is the kind of album that I almost couldn't see an artist top.... but with such beautiful songwriting and instrumentation, how could this be a fluke?
Ever since I bought this album, it has been in my cd player - and will remain there. This could be the perfect folk/alternative album. There are no low points, at all. Sure some songs are better than others, but every track has a wonderful sound all its own - with a message all its own.
As I mentioned at the top, the songwriting is fantastic. Songs like Losing Hope and The New are perfect examples of just how wonderfully Jack writes songs with emotion. The instrumentation throughout is perfect - full bodied where it needs to be (Inaudible Melodies) and sparce where it needs to be (Losing Hope, Fortunate...Read more

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