Joel Rafael is an award winning, internationally recognized songwriter from San Diego County. He won the Kerrville Folk Festival "New Folk Award" in 1995.Rafael is also considered to be one of the most natural interpreters of Woody Guthrie's songs, and has been a featured performer at the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Woody's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma since it's inception nine years ago.His two most recent CDs on Inside Recordings (an independent record company started by Jackson Browne and his management team) contain over two dozen Woody Guthrie compositions including five previously unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics to which Rafael composed the music. The lyrics were given to Joel by Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, who is in charge of the "Woody Guthrie Archives" and administrates the use of Woody's written and illustrated works.Rafael has three other recordings of original material, and is currently working a new album of original songs. He has toured the U.S. extensively over the last decade both as a solo artist and with the Joel Rafael Band (Jamaica Rafael on violin and vocals, Carl Johnson on guitar, and Jeff Berkley on percussion).Rafael is also a member of the national touring "Ribbon Of Highway Endless Skyway" cast (a revue honoring Woody's songs and writings) which also includes Jimmy LaFave, Bob Childers, Eliza Gilkyson, Slaid Cleaves, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion.
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