Joe Hickey = Acoustic guitar stylings influenced heavily by both Ian Andersen of Jethro Tull (the pretty stuff) and Ani DiFranco (the forceful stuff) + Vocal insanity (everything from growling to belting to whispered falsetto to a scream-y thing he's yet to find a name for) influenced predominantly by Jeff Buckley and Brian Vander Ark of the Verve Pipe.
I've been in and out of bands since I was 14, but finally started the solo singer/songwriter thing in 2003 just before leaving the East Coast, bound for my new home of Berkeley, CA. I'm also playing bass, guitar, flute and singing harmonies for the Grace Woods Trio .
After three years cutting my teeth at open mics in the B-W corridor and the Bay Area, I decided to record my debut album at one. I culled eight months worth of recordings from my weekly appearances at the Songwriters' Symposium in Berkeley to find the definitive performance of each of my ten best songs. That became Salvaging Monday, released in November 2006 and selling out fast. Get 'em while they're hot!
My lyrics tackle themes ranging from the deeply personal ("Brilliant", "Yields to the Noon", "New Year's Song") to the philosophical ("Life, Replaced by Mineral", "Sister Vigilante", "Lit by Lightning") to the whimsical and almost ridiculous ("Return to Sender", "In Distress"), and reflect the world of your typical 25-year-old: striving for self-reliance while feeling tethered to recently-relinquished childhood; trying to appreciate all aspects of life, even the unsavory ones and the lessons contained therein; and looking for love, often in the wrong places.
