Well there's just little old me. So I'll give you a brief rundown on the story so far. I played my first gig in 1987. Spent the next three years busking; hitching around the place and sleeping on floors; writing songs and learning to play. It was the closest thing a smalltown boy could get to hopping trains like the old Bluesmen and, being a head-in-the-clouds dreamer, hooked on the myths of rock'n'roll, I loved it. My fingers and thumb eventually got me halfway round Europe singing songs by The Pogues, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg, The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, Christy Moore, Steve Earle and, of course, Bob Dylan. In 1991 I settled in Hull and formed a band called Lithium Joe. I spent the next ten years jumping up and down banging out pop-punk to the four corners of the UK using my own label, Resolve Records, to release a bunch of 7" singles and a coupla cd albums. We toured incessantly, released 52 songs, caught no breaks whatsoever and eventually just wore ourselves out. When the band split in 2001 I was gutted, but I just wasn't ready to quit. I just stripped it all back down and started again. I holed up in my shed with a 4-track recorder and a single Shure mic. The first Joe Solo album "An Exile In Suburbia" was released in 2004, and my aim is to release one a year til I drop down dead. I have no money, never have had, so I can't afford studios or even decent equipment, but in Lithium Joe we always sought to do the best we could with whatever tools were at our disposal, and I still stand by that. If you love music enough, you find a way. Thanks for tuning in. Stick around, I'll be here for a good while yet.
Influences
Here's a Top Ten of all time..completely definitive...until tomorrow.
1. London Calling- The Clash
2. Grievous Angel- Gram Parsons
3. Bringing It All Back Home- Bob Dylan
4. Time (The Revelator)- Gillian Welch
5. Cassadaga - Bright Eyes
6. The Heart Of Saturday Night- Tom Waits
7. If I Should Fall From Grace With God - The Pogues
8. Old No. 1 - Guy Clark
9. Blue - Joni Mitchell
10. El Corazon - Steve Earle
....oh and everything Townes Van Zandt ever touched. The man was an unrivalled genius. Plus about a thousand other records that resonate loud and long....just like great music should.
Sounds Like
Everything I've ever soaked up and twisted round and spat back out again in my own inimitible style. I once overheard someone saying they didn't like my music as "you can't do your ironing to it". Thank Christ for that! I'd have been worried if you could. I hate background music. Either it demands your full attention or it isn't worth playing. Most modern music revels in it's own mediocrity. I'd rather you thought mine was crap and bin it than iron to it! Whatever is the world coming to? Currently writing songs for an album tentatively titled "Joe's Ghost" due for release in summer 2009. Even I don't know what this is going to sound like. This is why it is so much fun!! SEEEEEEEEYYYYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Hello and welcome to my little corner of myspace. Some of you may know me from the 10 years I spent with Lithium Joe: for those who don't, there should be some tunes streaming through. Enjoy.
Please take these songs and pass them on. File sharing is spreading music, not killing it.
My first loves these days are country and folk, but I've spent so long singing punk that the attitude kinda sticks. I love stories too. I'm in awe of the likes of Shane MacGowan, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Joe Strummer, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Earle and Bob Dylan; writers who take the idea of a song lyric into a whole new dimension.
My new album "Me & Billy The Kid" features three songs set in the First World War. I became pretty much obsessed with its history during the 1980's when I heard versions of Eric Bogle songs by The Pogues and The Men They Couldn't Hang. I've read countless books on the subject, but my favourites are those compiled by Lyn Macdonald based around survivors accounts. These three songs form the backbone of the album which is available NOW from those wonderful people over at www.smartchoicemusic.com, so please get hold of a copy and help support an ageing acoustic-toting troubadour in his dotage.
I'm gigging again with the album's release so please catch up with me and introduce yourselves, it's always good to hear from you. I'm also getting needy, so if you wouldn't mind clicking the iLike logo below I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks for your time. Get in touch. Joe xxx
Hey hey!! Scarborough Scarborough Scarborough indeed!! Sounds good, yo, looking forward to playing le processed pea with you in August but I'll try and catch you before hand in...Scarborough!! xx
alright mate! GT here.Top set last night.Thankyou soo much. The cd is ace and i will be reccomending it to anybody that will listen.Messaged a couple promoters re York and are gigs for ya so fingers crossed.All the best and come back soon! Peace...rom another english dreamer with american dreams!
Plays the 2008 Cottingham Springboard Music Festival 6-8 June 2008 5 Venues7 Stages Over 100 ActsFREEFor further information & programme, type this address directly into your web browser:
Hi Joe! It was great to see you again and to hear you too! I forgot to give you that CD! If you message me your address I'll pop one in the post! See you soon! Edwina xx
Love the new album. It's a lot different than the Lithium Joe songs I sang along to at the Adelphi back in the day when I was a student in Hull, but like those did then, these fit my life perfectly. Thanks for sharing them.
Freedom song awsome! you do it a bit faster live but still sounds gd. nice harmoneys! but i cant hear the disco upstairs on this track! haha wot a gig that was. cya soon
