Jim Farber of the New York Daily News wrote: "In the songs of Joe Firstman, sensitive young men prowl the hills of Los Angeles, searching for fame and beauty, only to find self-destructive behavior and egos gone wild… While Hollywood's peaks and pitfalls have been prominently charted by songwriters from Don Henley, Stevie Nicks and Jackson Browne to Warren Zevon, Firstman aims to reinvent the milieu for his own generation."
Raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, the son of a professional opera singer mother and a "lazy genius" dad, the now 27-year old Joe Firstman gravitated towards the family piano at the age of 12 and quickly developed an insatiable love of music. Firstman began singing and playing piano in his first band while still in high school. The band "Firstman", including members Parrish Mcintyre, Tony Anaya and Tommy Pope, played around Charlotte and Raleigh, NC from 1997-1999 when, while based out of Raleigh, the band was approached by Deep South records' Andy Martin. Martin offered the band a small, probably illegal deal but the band broke up before they could sign it.
A one-way Greyhound bus ticket landed him in L.A. in Febuary 2000. He would soon meet bassist Chris Carangi, Guitarist Will Fogle and Drummer Gabe Harmell and form the west coast version of "Firstman".
Firstman's emotional sound and powerful performances soon became the buzz around town. In 2001, he was named Singer/Songwriter of the Year at the Los Angeles Music Awards. Signed to Atlantic in early 2002, Joe went to work with producer Rick Parker to record his debut album. Paving the way for a full-length premier was an EP called “Wives Tales†released in 2003, distributed to Indie record stores only, it sold out all 20,000 copies printed. Later that year, came “THE WAR OF WOMEN†which put him on AAA radio with “Breaking All The Groundâ€, gave him the chance to explore and mold all sides of his musical personality with a terribly vast array of materials from piano-driven ballads to sophisticated pop to rollicking roots-rock, and was a fitting premiere of an exceptional new American artist. He was quickly featured in the Sundance Channel’s original documentary series “Keeping Time: New Music from American Rootsâ€. His segment, a personal exploration of the creative songwriting process, is part of the episode entitled “Art of Songâ€.
It also put Firstman on the road for the next four years, both playing his own shows, and supporting everyone from Jewel to Willie Nelson to Sheryl Crow. “His brief, eight-song set earned him a standing ovation - unheard of for a warm-up act," enthused the New York Post in its review of Firstman's Radio City Music Hall performance. "His 40-minute set walloped the audience with its energy and its promise of what this young singer-songwriter may accomplish," said the South Bend Tribune; while The Des Moines Register lauded: "The band vibrated with the sense that they had something to prove… Firstman appeared every ounce the promising star. The audience hung on his every word." The Ft. Myers News-Press described Joe's set as "amazing… Firstman's bluesy voice worked perfectly with the roots rocker numbers, and, when he shifted to piano, the band sounded like a mix between Lowell George-era Little Feat with a dash of The Band and a touch of the Black Crowes."
While not touring, Firstman’s also been collaborating with other songwriters including his hero Bernie Taupin with whom he penned “Tin Cans and Tear Drops†for a recent Willie Nelson project. He co-wrote "Everything reminds me of You" due out on Jewels next LP and also co-wrote the title track "Cold in California" on the latest Ingram Hill LP due out on Hollywood Records. He’s also been spending time between writing for his next album as the “house band†on “Last Call with Carson Daly†on NBC.
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