School of Pop: Alternative Folkie Jonatha Brooke

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MAYBE LIFE REALLY IS like high school. When alternative folkie Jonatha Brooke started writing songs with one of the guys in the popular music crowd (his name rhymes with Rick Trashay), she caught hell from those in her artsy clique.

But the singer-songwriter, who plays the Barns at Wolf Trap on Thursday, found the change of company liberating.

"[Working with Nick Lachey] took me out of my own head space and definitely showed me a different world," she says. "[But] I got so much crap about the fact that his name is on my record."

Who's to blame? A cheerleader, of course! Metaphorically, anyway. Jive Records A&R person Teresa LaBarbera-Whites, a longtime Brooke fan, played artistic matchmaker to the incongruous duo.

She also hooked Brooke up with 'N Sync singer JC Chasez, with whom Brooke also collaborated. Maybe Boston native Brooke won't get invited to the same parties. But the co-written songs, which the singers also recorded, make her newest album, "Careful What You Wish For," her most pop-savvy. Tunes like "Beautiful Girl" and "Prodigal Daughter" brim with hooks and pointed statements.

"I didn't set out to make a poppier record — it just sort of ended up that way," she explains.

"It surprised me and miffed me that people thought 'Ooh, she's selling out. She's trying to have pop hits because she's working with Nick Lachey and JC.' I'm like, 'Number one, it was never my idea, and I love what we came up with. And screw you! It was really fun.'"

Brooke started her music career in a folk duo called The Story, but then went solo, releasing lyrical cult-hit CDs like "Plumb" and "10 Cent Wings." She credits another popular dude, producer Bob Clearmountain, for influencing her new direction.

"I had the luxury of recording in his studio," she says. "That meant I could bring my full band and we could record tracks all at once. That definitely garners a bigger, rockier, poppier sound."

But members of Brooke's folk crowd can rest easy. She'll perform alone when she visits: "I love the space I'm left with playing solo. It's fun to be able to take songs wherever they lead me."

» The Barns at Wolf Trap, 1645 Trap Road, Vienna; Thu., 8 p.m., $22; 703-255-1868.

Written by Express contributor Tony Sclafani
Photos by Linda Hansen