Joe Solo profile picture

Joe Solo

About Me

Hello and welcome to my little corner of myspace. If all is going according to plan there should be some tunes streaming through. Enjoy. Please take these songs and pass them on. Don't believe the industry: file sharing is spreading music, not killing it.My new album "Music From Potter's Field- The First World War Songs Of Joe Solo" was released in February. The title kinda speaks for itself I guess. I've poured my heart and soul into it, and I'm tremendously proud of the outcome. I hope you'll take the time to listen to a few of the tunes on offer here. The full album is available to stream (plus the odd free download) at my ezfolk site (the link is on my blog), or you can buy it at cdbaby via the icon over on the left hand side there. Below are a couple of YouTube promos put together by the wonderful Mr Tim Roux. The first featuring the album opener "November The 12th", the second it's closer "Peace". Many of the slides are French archive photographs which have been converted to colour. They are stunning; and a reality check for those of us who are used to seeing the war in sepia. Please take a look. I write all the time so you'll never be far away from a new Joe Solo song, but blink and you miss them so keep in touch. I've got big plans for 2009 and some really interesting stuff in the pipeline, so please drop by again sometime soon. My last album "Me & Billy The Kid" is available at all the i-this and u-that web-type places, or alternatively you could always just tap me on the shoulder at a gig and ask. If truth be known I kinda prefer it that way. All the best, Joe xxx.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/4/2005
Band Website: www.joesolo.co.uk
Band Members: Hello There, My new album, "Music From Potter's Field" is now available in any number of ways. There's a paypal icon here..... at which you'll be asked to part with ten of your English pounds and I will despatch forthwith. Alternatively, there is an icon below..... ......to take you over to CDBaby where it is now available for the princely sum of $15. Or if you're playing catch-up, and want a copy of my last album "Me & Billy The Kid".... ..... it's only $7.50. Bargain! You won't get a better deal than that! I've now also got a Facebook site if you want to pop over there and be my friend. This will gain you little else other than some pointless idle banter, but maybe you're into that kinda thing. I've also got a "Musician" page over there, and if you want to click on that and be my "fan" that would be lovely. You'll get updates on gigs/albums and the like, and I'd be mighty glad to see 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.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk5Lg_w5Mio



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.AND GO OUT AND BUY "CITY OF REFUGE" BY RACHEL HARRINGTON. A TRULY STUNNING ALBUM AND MY FAVOURITE OF 2008 BY A COUNTRY MILE. HER MYSPACE IS ON MY TOP FAVES OVER THERE......And I've got to say that I've been really inspired by some of the truly brilliant performances I've witnessed this year by people I've had the great pleasure of playing with. Stand up Edwina Hayes, GT Turbo, Mark Wynn, Holly Taymar, David Ward Maclean. I've been bowled over by the lot of you in recent months and you have my love and respect.
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 a new Joe Solo album tentatively titled "Forwards Is Just Backwards In Reverse"and due in 2010. Even I don't know what this is going to sound like. This is why it is so much fun!! SEEEEEEEEYYYYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Joe Solo. Tom Paines Bones ( Bank Robber).
Here is my version of Graham Moore's classic "Tom Paine's Bones" incorporating "Bankrobber" by The Clash....recorded live at The Station in Loftus 30th April 2009 by the wonderful Ian Swinburne.
Record Label: Resolve
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

New Tune: "The Day I Shake The Blues (for GT)"

Hello AgainAnother FREE download demo on myspace. "The Day I Shake The Blues" is dedicated to the wonderful Mr GT Turbo who inadvertently made me consider trying to be Crazy Horse for the day. Been ag...
Posted by on Sat, 23 May 2009 07:29:00 GMT

New Tune: "Newfoundland Pine"

Hello there,Another new demo available for FREE download at myspace. "Newfoundland Pine" is based on an email sent to me by Bill Horncastle's Dad, who remembers his father bundling the family und...
Posted by on Fri, 22 May 2009 03:59:00 GMT

New Tune: "Hill 70 (Harry's Song)"

Hello AgainNew song available for free download at www.myspace.com/joesolo"Hill 70 (Harry's Song)" was written at the request of Harry Simpson and is based on the story of his Grandfather, Henry Rossl...
Posted by on Thu, 21 May 2009 07:57:00 GMT

Rock 'n' Reel Review

Hello thereBelow is the review of my new album "Music From Potter's Field" to be found in the latest edition of Rock'n'Reel magazine. I was so overjoyed to read this...JOE SOLO Music From Potter's Fie...
Posted by on Mon, 18 May 2009 13:46:00 GMT

New Album Update

Hello thereMy new album "Music From Potter's Field" is now even easier to get your hands on. There's a "BUY NOW" icon on my myspace page which will take a tenner off your hands via PayPal in exchange ...
Posted by on Sun, 17 May 2009 14:48:00 GMT

"Matthew, Matthew" latest Andy Wilson short

Hello thereHere's the latest Andy Wilson short story to accompany my songs on the "Music From Potter's Field" album. This one is for "Matthew, Matthew". I cried like a great big girl when I read it. I...
Posted by on Sun, 17 May 2009 14:20:00 GMT

Never Said Goodbye a new short by Andy Wilson

Hello againThe third short story by Andy Wilson to accompany the songs on my "Music From Potter's Field" CD is below. This one is for the song "Never Said Goodbye". As I've said previously, we are att...
Posted by on Sun, 10 May 2009 14:24:00 GMT

"Peace". Latest short by Andy Wilson.

Hello AgainBelow is the latest short story by my good friend Andy Wilson based around characters in songs on my "Music From Potter's Field" CD. We have discussed turning this into a book and cd packag...
Posted by on Wed, 06 May 2009 14:12:00 GMT

The Night Patrol

"Yet meet we shall, and part, and meet again, where dead men meet, on lips of living men"   Samuel Butler.Hello thereBelow is a short story written by my good friend Andy Wilson, giving some beautiful...
Posted by on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:06:00 GMT

New Album On CDBaby!

Hello AgainMy new album "Music From Potter's Field" is now available to order from CDBaby. There's an icon on myspace or the direct link is www.cdbaby.com/cd/joesolo2 . All the usual will follow, i-tu...
Posted by on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:02:00 GMT