By Tony Montague
The title of Toronto songwriter Jon Brooks’s The Smiling and Beautiful Countryside, and the vintage print of a red fox on its cover may suggest a collection of pieces inspired by wildlife and sunny landscapes. But the scent is false. The phrase comes from Sherlock Holmes, investigating a crime, and the fifth release by Brooks is a clutch of shockingly visceral new songs whose unifying theme is murder, and whose setting is rural and small-town Canada. On closer look, the fox has a deeply…
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