{"id":11280,"date":"2014-01-10T12:10:38","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T17:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=11280"},"modified":"2014-01-24T17:58:49","modified_gmt":"2014-01-24T22:58:49","slug":"jerry-joseph-solo-at-proud-larrys-january-17th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/jerry-joseph-solo-at-proud-larrys-january-17th\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerry Joseph Solo at Proud Larrys’ January 17th"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jerryjosephlive\"<\/a>Jerry Joseph<\/strong> has worn a lot of hats over more than three decades in the music trenches \u2013 righteous rocker, hyper-observant cultural observer, spiritual & political firebrand, force of nature live performer \u2013 but the bedrock of what he does has always been songwriting of the highest caliber.\u00a0 Joseph is a kindred tunesmith to sharp, craftsmanship minded pros like Elvis Costello, Warren Zevon and Nick Lowe, where the resoundingly sturdy bones inside their compositions shape things no matter what\u2019s draped over them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a dedication to fundamentals and classic singer-songwriter standards that\u2019s increasingly rare and welcome in a music environment that emphasizes texture and mood over substance.\u00a0 While Joseph has made acoustic albums in the past, his new self-titled record is his most exposed studio effort to date, the man, his guitar and songs standing in the spotlight with an open invitation for listeners to sit at his heel as he explores some of the strongest, finest reaches of his rich catalog.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to do,\u201d says Joseph.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s like that dream where you\u2019re naked at school except I\u2019m naked in a circle with my favorite songwriters. Nick Cave<\/strong>, Aimee Mann<\/strong> and Robert Wyatt<\/strong> are there and say, \u2018You play one, Jerry.\u2019\u00a0 What the fuck do I play? Well, I play \u2018War at the End of the World,\u2019 \u2018Cochise\u2019 or \u2018Spy\u2019 and hope they don\u2019t laugh me off the stage.\u00a0 In the end, the point of this album is to get in that circle and show what I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With clear, pleasantly immediate production from longtime collaborator Gregg Williams<\/strong> <\/b>(Blitzen Trapper, Dandy Warhols), Jerry Joseph<\/i> draws out hidden gems from his writing for Stockholm Syndrome<\/strong>, The Denmark Veseys<\/strong> and earlier overlooked solo releases to explore the soul floating inside his work.\u00a0 It\u2019s an intimate, passionately delivered, patiently rendered portrait of a serious songsmith laid bare akin to Chris Whitley<\/strong>\u2019s Weeds<\/i>, Joni Mitchell<\/strong>\u2019s Blue, <\/i>Michael Hedges<\/strong>\u2019 Watching My Life Go By<\/i>, Tim Bluhm<\/strong>\u2019s California Way<\/i>, and Patty Griffin<\/strong>\u2019s Living With Ghosts<\/i>.\u00a0 It\u2019s an album that sighs and laughs in real time, the emotional core lifted to the surface, the truths inside the songs as shiningly visible as their creator in this special setting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cW\"jerryjoseph1\"<\/a>e recorded about 30 songs chosen carefully from the whole catalogue though consciously less from more recent records,\u201d says Joseph.\u00a0 \u201cWhat ended up on this album represents, to me, pretty good songwriting presented in a super intimate, completely unaffected way.\u00a0 We tried for perfect takes early on and figured out quickly that we just needed to let the tape roll and let each performance be as honest as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not my children, but I feel like I owe it to the songs to explore possibilities and reflect on them in a different light,\u201d says Joseph.\u00a0 \u201cWith this record we wanted to leave every verse in, let the songs breathe a bit like early Dylan<\/strong> albums \u2013 clean, recorded with really good mics, versions that mean something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph first came to prominence in the mid-1980s with still-beloved cult band Little Women<\/strong>, a reggae-rock proto-jam band that dominated the Rocky Mountain club scene for nearly a decade, and notably helped break jam giants Widespread Panic<\/strong>, who looked up to Joseph and opened for his band before rising to prominence.\u00a0 To this day, many of Panic\u2019s favorite concert staples were written by Jerry Joseph, including such blazing epics as \u201cNorth,\u201d \u201cChainsaw City\u201d and \u201cClimb to Safety.\u201d\u00a0 Today, Joseph neatly describes Little Women as \u201ca mash-up of Burning Spear<\/strong> and the Grateful Dead<\/strong> dressed up like the New York Dolls<\/strong>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jerry Joseph & Danny Dziuk performing “Spy” from Joseph’s new self-titled album:<\/strong>
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