With critical praise and industry appreciation for this debut album "Labor & Spirits" earning him likely multiple writing credits for Bonnie Raitt's next album- as well as the increasing opportunities he's being offered to perform nationally with his [+]With critical praise and industry appreciation for this debut album "Labor & Spirits" earning him likely multiple writing credits for Bonnie Raitt's next album- as well as the increasing opportunities he's being offered to perform nationally with his touring band "The Peccadillos", Emory Joseph is certainly one to watch.
That an artist can pop up - seemingly out of nowhere - and arrive as mature, fully formed and self-possessed as Emory Joseph is mind-boggling. But from the jump, the youthful forty-two year-old musician has steadfastly been at work in and around music, while avoiding the usual musicians' paths.
"I was fortunate, or unfortunate depending on how you look at it, to have always been a little wayward. My thumb got me to a lot of places, except to school. I dropped out of school, left home real early, and got into all manner of things while I was honing my musical skills. Although I had some studio success here and there, and connected with well known players who offered me encouragement and stage time along the way (late blues great Albert Collins is someone to whom he says he owes a great deal), I never really liked playing in bar bands and didn't know enough about the business to get a recording deal - so I ended up doing a lot of other things for work."
"A lot of other things" included training dogs (with British TV trainer Barbara Woodhouse), grooming, working and shoeing horses for some of America's most famous riding professionals, sailing boats, singing jingles, and voicing commercials and cartoons. He's been a masseur, a copy-writer, a disc jockey, a teacher, a lecturer and is, he says with obvious pride, "somebody who has learned to catch, grow, cook, smoke or jerk just about anything you'd care to put in your mouth."
"I think, like all of us, I was looking for an honest place to write and sing from, one that would include all the sounds and feels I've come to love, and match the life I want to live. I'm thrilled for just exactly how things have turned out and wouldn't change a thing with regard to the when and wheres. I've had adventures, learned a bunch of things I'm proud to know, and have always been able to keep my musical dream lamp lit."
On his debut - the self-produced LABOR & SPIRITS, he treats his songs to
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