Fern Brodkin, longtime music writer, promoter, and community activist, has died at 59

Fern Brodkin, 59, of Ambler, longtime music writer and promoter, editor and community activist, died Monday, Aug. 5, of cancer at the Ambler Extended Care Center.

Ms. Brodkin was a journalist and music lover and she combined her editorial skills and music industry contacts to promote local musicians and the venues that featured them. She wrote magazine and newspaper articles and a weekly column called “Sounds Around Town” that appeared in Pottstown, Norristown, Lansdale, West Chester, and elsewhere in the region.

She was a popular fixture over the last 2½ decades at the old Living Room & Cricket Cafe in Ardmore, Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville, and Grape Street Pub in Manayunk. “For a long time, it seemed like she was everywhere,” musician and songwriter Tom Hampton said in his online journal, From the Rear View Mirror.

She previewed and reviewed performances at the Sellersville and Perelman Theaters, World Cafe Live, Ardmore Music Hall, and other local venues. She interviewed dozens of singers, songwriters, and musicians over her 25 years embedded in the region’s music scene.

She sold their tickets and merchandise before and after shows, and offered support and professional advice. She also booked artists for Steel City and the Living Room, and organized a weekend jazz festival for former Steel City co-owner Eli Wenger.

“She had a passion for music and for the tribe she felt she belonged to,” Wenger said. “And they loved her as much as she loved them.”

Her writing style was direct and knowledgeable. She interviewed slide guitarist Sonny Landreth in 2017 and wrote: “Though he is known as a blues artist, his passion for music began with rock, and his upbringing in Louisiana exposed him to a variety of music from Cajun and Creole culture, as well as jazz and R&B.”

Johnny A., Garry Lee, Frank Zappa, Adrian Belew, Greg Sover, and Jef Lee Johnson were among her favorite musicians, and her personal CD collection numbered more than 1,000. “If you had a show anywhere in the Philadelphia area in the past 30 years and Fern showed up, you knew you’d arrived,” Hampton said. “If she took a liking to you, you had a fan for life.”

Ms. Brodkin also edited books and material for other media companies. She was meticulous about accuracy, grammar, and punctuation, and singer and songwriter Deb Callahan said she received several unsolicited edits to her publicity e-mails. “I also realized that Fern always had my back,” Callahan said on Facebook, “and just wanted to help make things better for me and other musicians.”

In the 1980s, she was a member of the DelAWARE activist group that denounced construction of the Point Pleasant pumping station on the Delaware River near New Hope. She was jailed briefly in 1983 for refusing to stop demonstrating and became friends with Abbie Hoffman and other political and social activists.

Later, she supported music education programs for children and animal rescue centers. She ran unsuccessfully for spots on the New Hope Borough Council and national Republican delegation in the 1980s.

Friends on Facebook called her “a truly unique and impactful person,” “an inspiration to many,” and “a force of nature in her advocacy for the Philly music scene.” One friend said: “She brought out the best in a lot of us.”

Fern A. Brodkin was born May 18, 1965. Her parents died when she was young, and an uncle became her guardian. She graduated from the Solebury School in New Hope in 1983 and studied at Bucks County Community College.

She lived in Chicago for a time and later moved to Phoenixville and Ambler. She loved animals, especially her dog, Pokey, and delighted in exchanging updates about pets with friends on Facebook.

She liked to wear purple and was positive and funny, friends said. As she underwent months of treatment for cancer this year, she posted sentimental and sometimes raw messages of gratitude on her Facebook page.

“She was so giving and valued relationships over material possessions,” friend Kim Hopkins said. Friend Laura Grablutz said: “She loved people, and she loved music, and it came out very freely.”

Hampton said: “She just loved music that moved her, and she loved it enough that it became a cornerstone of who she was.”

Celebrations of Ms. Brodkin’s life are to be held later. Friends established a GoFundMe page in her memory.