Josh Joplin
Encyclopedia
Biography
Joplin was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Conestoga Valley, in the heart of Lancaster, Pa., until at the age of 12, when his family relocated to Columbia, Md.Joplin, who was never a great student, began guitar lessons with his math teacher, who promised a to give him the crucial credit he needed to pass the seventh grade if he could learn to play a song proficiently by the end of the year. His interest in guitar and music, especially folk music, outgrew his initial need for a passing grade. Though he made it through to the eighth grade, Joplin dropped out altogether after the ninth grade and began his career as a folk singer.
He spent the next couple of years traveling around the country, busking on the streets, taking odd jobs, and working in restaurants. It was while he was living in Denver for a short stint that he was given his first opportunity to perform in front of an attentive audience, opening for singer-songwriter Bill Staines
Bill Staines
Bill Staines is an American folk musician and singer-songwriter from New England, who writes and performs in a traditional vein. He has also written and recorded children's songs....
at the Swallow Hill Folk Music Center.
Later that month he met folk-blues legend Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
who encouraged Joplin to move to New York City, but he left shortly after his arrival upon listening to MacDougal Blues a record released by Atlanta songwriter Kevn Kinney. Joplin relocated to Atlanta.
Still heavily influenced by his heroes Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
, Josh landed a regular gig at Sylivia’s Atomic Café. Eventually he got some shows opening for singer-songwriters at Trackside Tavern in Decatur, Ga., but when it was learned by the club's manager that he was still underage he was forbidden to play there without a chaperon, so he was often the charge of the performers he was opening for, especially Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins is an American singer-songwriter who specializes in folk rock, instrumental rock, adult alternative, and Americana music. He is best known for the 1998 single, "Lullaby", which hit number one on the Adult Top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award.-Career:Mullins was born in...
and Natalie Farr.
In 1996, wanting to play with other people, Joplin was introduced to Geoff Melkonian, who played bass and viola, and Jason Beucker, who played drums. After playing a few shows together as Josh’s backing band, the three decided to continue to play together simply under the name Josh Joplin Band. They released an album later that year called Projector Head. The three toured tirelessly throughout the southern and northeastern U.S., eventually garnering a small but loyal following.
In 1997, they released Boxing Nostalgic and later that same year added Allen Broyles to their lineup on organ and piano. Broyles appears on two tracks of Boxing Nostalgic. Their expanding fan base and record sales increased exponentially, drawing the attention of major labels but never fetching them a deal.
In 1998, Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins is an American singer-songwriter who specializes in folk rock, instrumental rock, adult alternative, and Americana music. He is best known for the 1998 single, "Lullaby", which hit number one on the Adult Top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award.-Career:Mullins was born in...
, still riding high on his success with Lullaby signed the quartet to his own SMG Label. He produced Useful Music and performed on many of the songs. Shortly after its release, Jason Beucker was replaced on drums by Ani Cordero then Eric Taylor. Deb Davis was also added on lead guitar and the band made a slight name change: Josh Joplin Group
Josh Joplin Group
Josh Joplin Group was an American Georgia-based folk rock band led by singer-songwriter Josh Joplin. Joplin brought the group its trademark combination of introspective lyrics, catchy melodies, and lead vocals that, to many, sound identical to those of R.E.M...
.
In 2000, Useful Music was picked up by Danny Goldberg’s new label Artemis Records. It was repackaged and re-released in 2001. Many songs were totally re-recorded. Producer Peter Collins
Peter Collins (record producer)
Peter Collins is a record producer, born January 15, 1951, in London.In 1976 Collins was signed to Magnet Records and formed a group called Madison, along with Ziggy, Peter Spooner and Page 3 girl Cherri Gilham, to perform his pop song "Let It Ring"...
created a remix to a ballad called I’ve Changed for radio, which ended up as an alternate version on the album, but the bulk of the transformation came from former member of the Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
and producer Jerry Harrison
Jerry Harrison
Jerry Harrison is an American songwriter, musician and producer...
, who re-recorded Matter, I’ve Changed, and an additional track called Camera One. Camera One went on to become the first No. 1 hit on adult album alternative
Adult album alternative
Adult album alternative is a radio format. A spinoff from the album-oriented rock format, its roots trace to the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier freeform and progressive formats....
radio by an independent record label ever.
The band made its television debut that year, appearing on David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
first, followed by Conan O’Brien, and The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show, sometimes referred to as The Late Late, or in some cases by the acronym LLS, is the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster and the official flagship television programme of Irish broadcasting company RTÉ...
.
Joplin moved to New York City in 1998 but still toured and played with Josh Joplin Group.
The band followed the success of Useful Music with The Future That Was, which was recorded at Adam Schlesinger and James Iha’s studio Stratosphere and was produced by Rob Gal. Though it received much more critical acclaim, it had very little commercial success. Josh Joplin Group disbanded in December 2003.
In 2004, after being inspired by his then-neighbor Dan Zanes, Joplin began recording a solo record with the friends he grew up with as well as the math teacher who originally taught him guitar. On August 23, 2005, he released "Jaywalker
Jaywalker (album)
Jaywalker is the first solo album by singer/songwriter Josh Joplin. Jaywalker was released on August 23, 2005 with Eleven Thirty Records-Track listing:# "Mister New Years Day" – 3:29# "Pilgrim's Progress" – 4:08# "One Becomes Two" – 4:03...
" on Eleven Thirty Records
Eleven Thirty Records
Eleven Thirty Records is an indie label based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and owned by RedEye Distribution . Co-founded in 2004 by A&R Director Stephen Judge and Redeye and Yep Roc Records co-owner, Glenn Dicker, the label has released albums by artists such as: Concrete Blonde, The Gourds, A.J...
.
Among The Oak & Ash
In 2008, Joplin started a new group with Nashville-based singer/songwriter Garrison StarrGarrison Starr
Garrison Starr is a singer-songwriter who originally hails from Hernando, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. As a solo artist, she has recorded seven full-length albums, as well as two EPs and one live album...
called Among The Oak & Ash
Among The Oak & Ash
Among The Oak & Ash is an ever-changing collection of musicians led by American songwriter Josh Joplin. The songs are born out of the musical tradition of the Appalachian Mountains and are either adapted from their folk conventions or are entirely original and are written to sound like old time...
. Their self-titled debut album was released June 16, 2009, on Verve Records
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
.
The seeds of Among The Oak & Ash — the name is borrowed from the title of an old folk song — were planted during Joplin's teen years. It was then, as an itinerant high-school dropout, that he was introduced to Appalachian musical traditions via the repertoire of the unsung Indiana combo Hurricane Sadee, whose performances of folk and bluegrass standards opened Joplin's eyes to a new world of lyrical depth and musical expression. A well-worn Hurricane Sadee cassette became a touchstone for Joplin, and it was from the group that he first learned several of the songs that appear on Among The Oak & Ash. Hurricane Sadee leader Cari Norris is guest banjoist on the album's version of Shady Grove.
As he built his own musical career, Joplin discovered a close friend and kindred musical spirit in fellow singer-songwriter Starr. Starr, like Joplin, had signed to a major label while still in her teens, and had spent much of her adult life performing her compositions for audiences around the world. So when Joplin began to consider making an album of the folk songs that had influenced him so profoundly, it was natural that he would call upon Starr to collaborate on the project.
Joplin and Starr then called upon a pair of highly regarded Nashville-based players, bassist Brian Harrison (Shelby Lynne
Shelby Lynne
Shelby Lynne is an American singer, songwriter and actress. The success of the 1999 album I Am Shelby Lynne led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, even though she had been active in the music industry for some time...
) and drummer Bryan Owings (Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin, born Patricia Jean Griffin, March 16, 1964, is an American Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and musician. She is especially known for her down-home crafting of songs and her connection to musicians including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, and the Dixie Chicks, who have played with...
), to complete the project's instrumental lineup. Recording in the relaxed atmosphere of Harrison's Nashville home studio, the four musicians approached the sessions with a sense of organic intimacy that's reflected in the album's heartfelt performances.
Working without the funding of a record label, and without any outside influences, they were able to focus entirely on the music.
"It was probably the first time I've ever been in the studio where I wasn't worried about anything," Joplin states. "It was a very relaxed atmosphere, and there was never a sense of being on the clock."
"It was a great creative environment," adds Starr. "We recorded everything in six days. We did most of the record live, without many overdubs and not much production. We just went in there and played the songs, and the whole thing felt completely natural and honest."
Unlike many recent projects that have explored folk and bluegrass material, Joplin and Starr had no interest in creating a self-consciously old-timey sound. "I think that this music has been held onto rather preciously by a lot of the people who've revived it," Joplin observes. "But if you look back on the people who originally created this music, they weren't purists, they were just expressing themselves with the tools that were available to them at the time. That's what we wanted to do: to be faithful to the songs without treating them like museum pieces. One of the things that made me want to work with Garrison was her urgency and irreverence, and I think that those qualities played a big part in how the performances turned out."
"We're definitely looking at this as something that has a future to it," says Starr.
"We're still just starting out, but this has been a lot fun, and it's something that we'd like to keep doing as long as we're having as a good a time as we're having now," adds Joplin. "We definitely won't run out of material."
Studio albums
- A Present For Hitler (1989)
- Facts Of Fortune (1990)
- I Love Janey, But Janey Loves The Grateful Dead (1991)
- Projector Head (1997)
- Boxing Nostalgic (1997)
- Useful Music (1998)
- Camera One (2000)
- The Future That Was (2002)
- The Early Years: Volume One (2004)
- JaywalkerJaywalker (album)Jaywalker is the first solo album by singer/songwriter Josh Joplin. Jaywalker was released on August 23, 2005 with Eleven Thirty Records-Track listing:# "Mister New Years Day" – 3:29# "Pilgrim's Progress" – 4:08# "One Becomes Two" – 4:03...
(2005) - Among The Oak & AshAmong The Oak & Ash (album)Among The Oak & Ash is the first self-titled album by the group Among The Oak & Ash. Among The Oak & Ash was released on June 16, 2009 with Verve Records.- Track listing :# "Hiram Hubbard" – 3:39# "Peggy-O" – 2:50# "Angel Gabriel" – 2:49...
(2009)