REMEMBERING JONATHAN DAVID BROWN

Jonathan David Brown

You may not know the name Jonathan David Brown, but you’ve probably been entertained, influenced, and inspired by his talent. Brown was one of the most prolific producers of Jesus Music and CCM from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. He worked as a producer and audio engineer on projects by such artists as Petra, Steve Taylor, Daniel Amos, Bob Bennett, David Meece, Mark Heard, Gentle Faith, Tom Howard, Russ Taff, Kelly Willard, Andrae Crouch, Jamie Owens-Collins, Michelle Pillar, Servant, Morgan Cryar and many others.

Tragically, Jonathan David Brown passed from this life on September 27, 2016 in Ozark, Missouri. He left behind a wife and five children. He was just 60 years old.

Brown was born on November 20, 1955 in Oklahoma City. Some of his earliest memories were of crawling around on the floor of his grandfather’s music store in Oklahoma City, listening while his grandfather tuned pianos. Music was a huge part of Jonathan’s life from a very early age. “My father started out to be a concert pianist and transformed into an entertainer, music minister, Gospel quartet pianist and teacher,” he remembers. “I grew up with him communicating music to me. My grandfather taught me guitar from the time I was eight years old. Then I studied drums and percussion for four years from Johnny Johnson, who taught at my grandfather’s store. He also taught Bill Maxwell.”

From the time Jonathan was eight until he turned fifteen, he performed with his father in numerous gigs – everything from company Christmas parties to Jaycees conventions to the Dale Evans Rogers Home for the Mentally Retarded. “My father could make 10,000 drunk Jaycees pay attention to us,” he recalled. “I played drums and banjo. We had a regular gig at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor five nights a week!”

From there, Jonathan spent his weekends playing drums and keyboards with several bands in his teens, including The H.I.S. Men, The Perfect Combination and Blues Road Junction. He credited all of these musical experiences with forming his eventual direction as a record producer.

SETH at Bethany Nazarene College in 1974

At the tender age of seventeen, Jonathan David Brown was ordained “by the Holy Spirit” as a minister. Not long after, he became part of an early Jesus Music group known as Seth. Seth recorded two albums on the Shalom label. Kelly Willard (then Kelly Bagley) and Keith Edwards (later Amy Grant’s drummer and sought-after session player) were also part of that group. The music of Seth was sometimes compared to that of The Carpenters, James Taylor and Crosby Stills and Nash. Seth wound up an opening act for The Archers. When asked about his time in Seth, Jonathan said, “We toured the country for two years, playing everything from street ministry coffee houses to Saturday night church concerts.”  

After Seth, Jonathan David Brown switched gears. “When I moved to L.A., I gave up the ministry to minister to ministers,” he said, somewhat confusingly. “This inadvertently made me a modern-day Jonah, avoiding my original calling in lieu of a more ‘comfortable’ career.”

Well, that “more comfortable career” resulted in a whole lot of wonderful music. But we’re getting ahead of the story. Let’s back up a little bit.

JDB at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa in 1978

After graduating high school, Brown was offered a full scholarship to Oral Roberts University which he turned down in lieu of a job at Mama Jo’s Recording Studio in North Hollywood. He had married his high school sweetheart, Tammy, and the two of them set out for sunny Southern California. Jonathan paid his dues by working at Mama Jo’s for $25 per day for an entire year. He rubbed shoulders with artists such as Alan Parsons, Ambrosia, and Al Stewart. He also served as a second engineer for a very talented man by the name of Bill Schnee. “Schnee had an unbelievable career during which he worked with everyone from Three Dog Night to Melissa Manchester, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and zillions of others,” Jonathan recalled. “He taught me how to trust my ears, use tube microphones, and when to know that I was struggling too hard.”

Brown went to work for Maranatha! Music and was heavily involved in the planning, design and building of Maranatha’s recording studio. It’s been said that every part of that studio had Jonathan’s fingerprints on it. After working on albums such as Sail On Sailor by Mustard Seed Faith, Shotgun Angel by Daniel Amos, and Kelly Willard’s Blame It On the One I Love, Jonathan David Brown was off and running.

Jonathan David Brown working on the album "Shotgun Angel" by Daniel Amos

“I first met Jonathan at Good News Recording Studio in the San Fernando Valley,” remembers Oden Fong of the group Mustard Seed Faith. “I immediately saw his genius and talent and marveled at him! One day Jonathan took albums by myself, Bob Bennett and Kelly Willard and walked into KNX-FM, a secular radio station, and humbly inspired the program director to listen to them. They ended up playing several of our songs in their regular rotation, ministering to their secular audience. I would hear my voice and songs in the supermarket. I marveled at God’s hand in this!”

Jonathan David Brown in the studio with Twila Paris, Matthew Ward and Greg X. Volz

Brown’s voluminous body of work is impressive, but he is perhaps remembered most for his work with the band Petra.

Of course, Brown had heard Petra’s groundbreaking 70s albums on Myrrh Records and had seen them play live in 1979 at Knott’s Berry Farm in Orange County, California. But he didn’t meet Bob Hartman and Greg X. Volz until Darrell Harris and Wayne Donowho, co-owners of Star Song Records, introduced the men and asked Jonathan to record Never Say Die.

The album marked a huge turning point for Petra.

“Prior to Washes Whiter Than, Petra had what I would consider to be ‘underground fame’ among the newly-converted rockers listening to Jesus Music,” said Brown. “Washes Whiter Than delivered them up to Christian radio for the first time with Why Should the Father Bother? So the first thing Darrell and Wayne played for me after that record’s nominal success was a demo of The Coloring Song. They knew it was a smash, and I agreed. Greg X. Volz added the juice necessary to catapult the band into the 100,000 sales club.”

The song was a huge success. Jonathan remembered: “Why Should the Father Bother cracked open the door. The Coloring Song blew the wall down.”

Brown was hired to work with Petra because he had enjoyed some success with bands – Sweet Comfort, Mustard Seed Faith, Daniel Amos – and he understood radio.

Brown was at the helm for two of the greatest arena rock albums ever recorded: 1982’s More Power To Ya and 1983’s Not Of This World. He remembered working with Greg X. Volz (who became a life-long friend) with melodic interpretation and phrasing. “Bob [Hartman] just let Greg and me do what we needed to get Greg’s best performance – everything except choose the right key,” Brown revealed. “We were stuck with ‘guitar keys,’ which sometimes made Greg, in spite of his range, have to pull up his shorts! I didn’t like the dog whistle frequencies. They probably wore Greg out, and me trying to get them on tape. But hey…at least nobody had to use a capo!” More Power To Ya, in particular, is remembered as an amazing record; Brown has called it “the most fun record” he ever made. It was recorded in Uvalde, Texas in a studio on an 18,000-acre ranch in the West Texas desert, where scorpions roamed freely.

Jonathan David Brown was also responsible for a classic moment not just in Petra’s career, but in the history of Christian rock and roll: the backward masking on the front of Judas’ Kiss was his idea. It was actually spoken by Petra keyboardist John Slick in case you’re wondering. Brown was quite fond of Slick, an often underrated and overlooked keyboardist. “John Slick was perhaps equally as talented as John Lawry,” offered Brown. “He could make a musical silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

This 'Mailgram' will give you an indication of how record company executives
appreciated the talents of Jonathan David Brown 

For all the credit Brown receives for Never Say Die, More Power To Ya and Not Of This World, he also receives criticism for his part in the schism that led to that particular incarnation of Petra blowing apart. His decision to replace drummer Louie Weaver and bassist Mark Kelly with a Fairlight synthesizer opened up some wounds that took a long time to heal. Beat the System was a great album, but it was a departure…definitely a nod toward what was current and trendy in 1985. It is remembered quite fondly, of course, by Petra fans, but doesn’t necessarily hold up as well as some of the band’s other works from the 1980s.

After the live album in 1986 (Captured in Time and Space), Brown and Petra parted ways. As did Volz and Petra. By this time, Jonathan David Brown and Greg X. Volz were close friends, so Brown helped Volz record another great record, The River is Rising, and several others after that.

Greg X. Volz

Brown’s career as an audio engineer and producer was obviously a huge success. Sadly, his first marriage was not. He was divorced from his first wife in 1985. She went on to work as a secretary for Sony Music Nashville.

Jonathan David Brown later remarried: “I decided Rachel and I should be ‘just friends’ at first – you know, ‘brother and sister in the Lord.’ That’s obviously not what destiny had in store. We married May 2, 1987. She is my partner for life, Yahweh willing…and I think He is.”

Brown’s tremendously fruitful career as a producer and engineer came to an abrupt and shocking halt in 1992 when he was convicted and sentenced to a 27-month federal prison term and fined $10,000 for accessory to a conspiracy to violate civil rights and perjury, when he helped a man hide from authorities after a drive-by shooting of a Jewish synagogue in Nashville. Articles in Brown’s apartment indicated membership in a white supremacist group.

Oden Fong

“These charges that Jonathan became part of the KKK and did some prison time for harboring a man who shot up a Jewish synagogue…this was true,” laments Oden Fong. “When I heard about his adventures into this strange way of thinking, I was not surprised. Nothing about Jonathan’s thinking process was ever ‘normal.’ He was brilliant and emotional, but was also able to get off-base and delve into wackiness. Those things didn’t move me to dismiss or discard my friend. Jesus never gives up on us, does He? He puts up with our junk, so should we not be patient with others?”

Indeed, Brown often dabbled (or dove into) beliefs and doctrines that were decidedly out of the mainstream. He took “the vow of the Nazarite” in 1989 for spiritual and physical strength. And he later became the first known “Sabbath keeper” to begin the practice of counting the Sabbath from the New Moon day rather than using the modern seven-day week. It’s known as the Lunar Sabbath movement.

In the process of researching this post, I discovered a comment board online that featured a brief interaction between Jonathan David Brown and the self-appointed Christian investigative reporter Jon Trott (who’s seemingly always at odds with somebody about something). Brown’s reply to Trott was very revealing:

“You have no idea what I believe, only what others have said. I am merely a servant of Yahweh – nothing more. And in fact, the modern churches have given only lip service to Yahweh’s laws, which is why the nation is in the shape it’s in. They have filled their plates with unclean food and have brought about this fury. Even so, we must be patient with all who claim to belong to Him that we might remain on the path of righteousness.”

JDB in the studio with Glen Campbell

After serving his prison term – which he referred to as his ‘federal sabbatical’ – Brown released an album titled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and continued to work in music, lending his talents to projects by Karen Lafferty, Kelly Willard, Glen Campbell and others.

His spiritual and political views left many scratching their heads, but his talent was never in question. “The stuff that Jonathan produced and engineered, sonically and everything like that, he was a genius,” offered no less an expert than Steve Taylor. “And you won’t hear me use that word very often, but he was really a genius.”

“Jonathan will be missed by me and many others who were blessed enough to spend time with him,” said Oden Fong. “He was one of a kind, a throw-away-the-mold creative soul!”

JDB (center) with Kelly and Dan Willard in Jerusalem in 1974

Perhaps the most touching tribute to Jonathan David Brown came from the wonderful Kelly Willard, a friend, a former bandmate in Seth, and a solo artist who benefited from Brown’s amazing ear for music. I will close this post with her words…

So thankful that I was able to make it to the funeral service for my dear friend, Jonathan David Brown…

We worshipped God in song together, we laughed, we cried.... Greg Volz sang Great is Thy Faithfulness, I sang my favorite song that Jonathan wrote, called My Friend....

 
The upside of the whole situation is that Jonathan is at peace. His faith has become sight. He knows in full, he sees in full. His joy is now complete, in the very presence of the God he loved.... but, most importantly, he is with the God who loved him...the God who loved him perfectly, through all of his ups and downs and ins and outs.... just like He loves us through our ups and downs and ins and outs.

I knew Jonathan from the time we were both 17 years old, and one thing I know for sure – Jonathan knew Jesus and he loved Jesus. Now he is with Jesus, finally! Sometimes we, as friends, couldn't support every path he took in his journey here on earth (All we like sheep have gone astray), but let us honor this man as our brother in Christ, and let us recognize his God-given gifts and talents, and his countless contributions to the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through music, and let us forgive as we desire to be forgiven.

Rest in peace, Jonathan. We love you!

Kelly Willard

Jonathan David Brown (1955-2016)