![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783177752_587_default.jpg\")
\u201cMusic itself is powerful enough,\u201d said Mark Bragg, \u201cbut if you’re creating music, that’s supercharged rehab.\u201d (Submitted by Mark Bragg)<\/p>\nMark Bragg is sitting in the lobby of the Alt Hotel. He chose the location because he knows he can navigate the space with his walking cane and it has chairs he can settle into without assistance. His wife, Kerrie Cochrane, dropped him off at the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing a lot more independent stuff lately,\u201d he said. \u201cEven just a month ago, I wouldn\u2019t have Kerrie drop me off on the sidewalk and walk in here just to do my own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been three years since a stroke sent Bragg into a season-long coma. Although he\u2019s just begun navigating public spaces on his own, the musician has been strutting his stuff on stage for more than six months.<\/p>\n
To what does he credit his recovery? Bragg names three things: \u201cI had the sense of humour, I had the family, and I had the huge network of community support.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lost year<\/p>\n
Bragg remembers little of the summer and fall of 2023. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I could tell you how long I was asleep for, but I couldn\u2019t tell you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
What he can tell you is that the stroke happened two days after the 2023 launch of his last album, Ashes. He remembers sitting at the piano in his home and having a concerning, but familiar, sensation. He remembers calling his teenager, Luka, into the room and saying he felt a seizure coming on, but this one felt stranger than usual.<\/p>\n
Beyond these details, Bragg\u2019s timeline is spotty. He describes his experience as \u201capproximately four months in a coma, but a year of f—ked-uppedness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic itself is powerful enough,\u201d said Mark Bragg, \u201cbut if you’re creating music, that’s supercharged rehab.\u201d (Submitted by Mark Bragg)<\/p>\n
Bragg, 50, has been performing spitfire live shows in St. John’s for nearly three decades. When a tourist in the lobby of the Alt asks him what type of music he writes, he leads with, “It’s a job to say,” then goes on to describe his songs as “kind of in the ballpark\u00a0of Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and Violent Femmes.” <\/p>\n
Singing in the voice of often-troubled fictional characters, he explores the darkest human impulses with high energy and a spirit of play.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
A DIY gym for rehab<\/p>\n
Bragg\u2019s physical recovery has been a long process of retraining his body. He remembers the challenge it was to meet the admission requirements to the Miller Centre\u2019s rehabilitation program.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t sit up, and you really had to demonstrate that you could sit up for a few minutes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Once he began rehab, his father attended his physiotherapy appointments and took notes of the exercises and sketches of the equipment. At home, he used items he found around the house \u2014bicycle tires, inner tubes, safety equipment \u2014 to create a makeshift BowFlex-style workout contraption.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call it bayman style,\u201d said Bragg, \u201cLike what an uber-resourceful, old-school bayman would do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recovering his musical muscle memory<\/p>\n
In those early days, when the prospect of returning to playing music seemed out of reach, Bragg imagined a shift toward other creative outlets. \u201cI wholly thought I\u2019d be wanting to get into something completely different, something creative like fiction writing or music producing.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the idea of no longer playing for an audience didn\u2019t sit right with him. \u201cI\u2019m a professional musician \u2026 also a performer. That was something I realized had to be the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some months into his rehab, he sat at a piano and began the process of relearning how to play the keyboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was surprised that it wasn\u2019t just my physical faculties that had been impacted, but my rhythm and sense of time got thrown out, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
In time, he discovered that he was able to recover more functionality in his hands when he was playing piano than when he did non-musical movement exercises. <\/p>\n
\u201cWatching the way my hands interact on the piano\u2026was far different than watching them interact in other areas,\u201d Bragg said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge thing,\u201d he said. \u201cMusic has a way of activating every part of your brain. It\u2019s one of the very powerful neuro-rehab tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783177753_907_default.jpg\")
In his recent shows, Bragg has been sharing his songs with vocalist Suzanne Power. \u201cWhat she contributes to my songs, that’s exciting.\u201d (Submitted by Mark Bragg)A welcoming community<\/p>\n
Bragg\u2019s transition from relearning to play the piano at home to performing for an audience began with a reboot of the Nighthawks, a monthly open mic Tom Waits tribute he initiated back in 2016. At that time, it gave amateur musicians at all skill levels the opportunity to perform with Bragg and other professional musicians.<\/p>\n
In a sense, resuming Nighthawks during his stroke recovery became a form of reciprocity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be learning again, and then I\u2019d have the same kind of support that we provided,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The goodwill that was sown in the early years of Nighthawks has become a source of support as Bragg returned to performing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really hard to get back out into the community, especially with all the mobility issues and energy problems. And I knew I wouldn\u2019t have anything to worry about with that crowd, because I knew they\u2019d all have my back, no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Returning to performance<\/p>\n
The past six months have seen Bragg take on the challenge of playing and singing with his own bands. <\/p>\n
Last December, he resumed a long-standing tradition of performing the Boxing Day show at the Ship Pub. Then, in March, he held a 50th birthday bash at the Rock House, playing sets with the Nighthawks crew, the Butchers, the Catalina Reapers and the Crate Diggers. For July, he\u2019s preparing for a more intimate show at Bannerman Brewing Co.<\/p>\n
His recent performances have showcased the same emotionally charged songs and the same gritty showmanship that made Bragg a lasting favourite for St. John\u2019s live music fans. While he continues to regain his stamina and mobility, he\u2019s making more space for his fellow musicians to shine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started to get any amount of functionality back \u2026I realized that, regardless of what came back with my hands and my legs, getting around stage, I knew I’d always have these amazing musicians in my back pocket to bring the energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bragg’s next appearance will be the Mark Bragg & Friends show at Bannerman Brewing Co. on July 11. <\/p>\n
Download our\u00a0free CBC News app<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our\u00a0daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click\u00a0here to visit our landing page<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Bragg is sitting in the lobby of the Alt Hotel. He chose the location because he knows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-780000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}