Jonatha Brooke borrowed the title of her latest album, The Works, from a Woody Guthrie lyric she came across in a notebook stored at the Guthrie archives – “ I am the WORKS, the whole WORKS,” the American folk legend had scribbled, “The saint, the sinner, the drinker, the thinker....” Placing hitherto unseen Guthrie lyrics in contemporary musical settings to create brand-new songs, Brooke, backed by a small combo of stellar jazz and rock players, indeed offers us the works -- an extraordinarily intimate, emotionally revealing portrait of an American folk legend and an album that’s very much her own.

The image of Guthrie that Brooke creates by piecing together the contents of file cabinets and folders is one of a man both brash and tender, morally outraged and spiritually longing, a dreamer, sensualist, prankster, husband, lover, wanderer, troubadour. Says Brooke,” I started finding these really personal lyrics -- searching, spiritual ones -- and this gorgeous, sexy poetry, and it was fascinating. It drew me in and made me think I could do something really cool with this material.”

She assembled a small, impressive crew of seriously seasoned musicians: keyboardist Joe Sample (Eric Clapton, B.B. King), bassist Christian McBride (Sting, Diana Krall) drummer Steve Gadd (Paul Simon, David Sanborn), and steel guitarist Greg Leisz (k.d. lang, Wilco). Virtuosic guitarist/singer Glenn Phillips duets with Brooke on the ballad“Sweetest Angel”; Derek Trucks contributes evocative slide playing to the gentle “New Star.” Brooke co-produced the album with studio legend and longtime friend Bob Clearmountain, who had first worked with Brooke on her 2001 album, "Steady Pull". In two days of live-in-the-studio sessions, they built a sturdy foundation for "The Works", marked by some remarkable, spontaneous playing – check out McBride’s eloquent upright bass lines on “Sweet and Bitter Bowl” or Sample’s soulful organ riffs on “More True Lovers Than One.”