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Jerry Joseph Our man in the field

0	LEEK: Foxlowe Arts Centre
P	Wednesday 29th September, 2021
N	7:15pm

Event information

Leek Blues & Americana Festival 2021

Jerry Joseph is a musician who lives in Portland Oregon, but he’s often gone. He’s been inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame but is still rather obscure to a lot of people. He plays well over 150 shows a year in the usual places. Across America. Sometimes in Europe, Mexico, and Central America. Then there’s these other places he plays—Lebanon, Israel, Kurdish Iraq, India, and Afghanistan. All over the Middle East, often in war zones and refugee camps.

A triple threat—someone who works at the highest levels as a songwriter, singer, and player. Jason Isbell, who kinda personifies such, recently tweeted about triple threats and listed Jerry Joseph (along with Richard Thompson and St. Vincent) among the greatest examples of that phenomenon.

Jerry Joseph has been playing shows and making records since the 80s, first in a band called Little Women that at one point looked destined to be huge, but this is a crazy business and sometimes things just don’t go as planned. By the 90s Jerry was struggling with addiction while also creating the beginnings of a vast body of work as a solo artist and burning up the road backed by a mighty band called The Jackmormons. They built a considerable following in the great Northwest. Many of Jerry’s songs were recorded by the band Widespread Panic, and there are many people who know of Jerry through that connection. Later, after getting clean, Jerry toured and made some albums as part of Stockholm Syndrome, a sort of supergroup he formed with Panic bassist David Schools, who himself is an incredible musician. Much of Jerry’s following in the so-called jam band circles is through his affiliation with these bands.

The Beautiful Madness is both prophetic and apocalyptic, quickly becoming a revelation for all who have ears to hear.

—No Depression

Adopting the conceit of being an independent correspondent reporting on his travels and the people he’s met. Our Man in the Field is London-based actor/singer-songwriter Alexander Ellis’ debut album, a rather fine set of shuffling, pedal steel coloured Americana pop, occasionally sung in a dreamy falsetto that echoes the mood of the music.