Terry Brennan

We used to play football in the rain. Soccer in the snow. We both loved Harry Belafonte. His mother used to bring cold lemonade out to us on hot days. I skipped grades. And graduated before Terry. And then Terry failed a grade. We went to different high schools. Our friendship continued for a couple of years but eventually faded.

Years later I went to a reunion. At our old elementary school. Terry’s old girlfriend was there. I think her name is Judy. Someone I can’t remember joined us. Judy asked if I had heard from Terry. I heard that he was playing backup for Phil Ochs. The  person who had joined us said that Terry was dead. My mouth dropped. Judy started to cry. She soon left. For years after that I wrote stories that Terry was in. Stories about the things we did.

And then I heard this performer. On the net. He might be the Terry I knew. He looks a little too young. But Terry was a good looking guy. I have to find out more information about this guy. I know he performed in Toronto in clubs. And that he took off to California. But is he the Terry Brennan I knew?

From the tradition of Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine and Steve Earle comes a troubadour straight out of the heart and soil of this fair, wide land.

Brennan’s teen years were spent haunting the clubs of Yorkville Village in Toronto, eventually sharing the same stages as some of his heroes, Phil Ochs, Erik Anderson, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Rush, Buffy St. Marie…the university for this aspiring young guitar player.

The winner of numerous songwriting contests and awards, Brennan has been honing his craft for decades. Throughout his years as a cowboy, a forest ranger, an actor, a mountaineer, a miner and more, he has been writing and singing of the people and places he’s known. His songs have a deceptive ease, which leaves us with the sense that they have already been with us for a long time.

Terry has recently moved to Victoria from Vancouver, and is rapidly becoming recognized as one of Vancouver Island’s most outstanding performers. He is an urban country folk artist, blending the raw honesty of rock and country with the poetics and intelligence of the folk tradition. His extensive repertoire features songs of bitter love; songs of social injustice; songs of leaving and loneliness; songs of returning and joy. He is held in the highest esteem by other songwriters and musicians he’s worked with, some of whom include Brennan’s work in their own repertoire.

Discovered. By Columbus

It Was 8 O’Clock

I arrived late. The house was dark. I kept hoping to hear your foot steps. Or your breath. It wasn’t that I didn’t want you to leave. Reciprocal break-up. The house was stark. Mad. The children we hadn’t had. Needed to be fed.

I can’t recall what season it was. A book I hadn’t finished lay on the floor. Saul Bellow. The water pipes weren’t knocking. Shy. In rhythm. Switched on the television. Joan Rivers was selling. Shiny. And very unstable umbrellas.

Pizza. From the week before. Stale beer. I should take a trip to New York. Maybe I can be discovered. By Columbus. Maybe I can pour my heart out on a street corner. The one reserved for red heads and foreigners.

I was hoping you might call. It was 8 o’clock.