Joe Solo UK on iLike

Joe Solo UK

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Added music Aug 13
New bulletin Aug 12
New events Aug 12

"YOU HAVE TO DO THE BEST YOU CAN WITH WHATEVER MEANS ARE AT YOUR DISPOSAL. THAT'S HOW YOU SURVIVE." Joe Solo 2004. Joe Solo began his musical life playing punk covers in a school band. Performing his first original song live in 1987, he discovered folk music through the punk leanings of The Pogues, The Men They Couldn't Hang and Billy Bragg. He went on to travelling and busking, eventually hitch-hiking his way round England, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Belgium. "It was the closest a smalltown boy could get to hopping trains like the old bluesmen, and being hooked on the myths of rock'n'roll, I absolutely loved it". Eventually settling in Hull in the spring of 1991, he formed pop-punk four-piece Lithium Joe. The band toured and recorded independently for the next ten years playing close to four hundred shows around Britain and Ireland. After 4 singles and two albums they finally split in 2001. "We were fanatically independent," he says "we did everything ourselves, and never chased a record deal. The 'us against the world' thing bonded us in ways other bands maybe miss out on. We were like brothers." Following the band's demise, Joe went back to his roots in folk music. Taking with him the attitude and spirit of his days in the band. His tastes had widened too. A love of Tom Waits and Townes Van Zandt, together with a new revelation. "Gillian Welch knocked me flat. The way The Clash had done when I was a kid. I set about trying to mix the styles. Trying to marry punk, folk and country without treading on the tradition of either." With the aim of "releasing an album a year until I drop down dead" Joe's latest offering "Me & Billy The Kid" suggests he may be about to realise that ambition, showcasing his love of storytelling like never before. Doomed soldiers rub shoulders with hobo visionaries and jaded pub singers, each with their own tale to tell. Now based in Scarborough, Joe has his eyes firmly on the future. "I can feel I'm close. I see songs in everything. The sky really is the limit". DISCOGRAPHY As Joe Solo: Me & Billy The Kid CDLP 2008 Strong At The Broken Places CDLP 2007 Seaside Songs & Smalltown Stories CDLP 2006 The Man Who Dreamed Of Fairyland CDLP 2005 An Exile In Suburbia CDLP 2004 With Lithium Joe: At The Rainbow's End CDLP 2001 Upstairs At Park Street CDLP 2000 War Stories 7"EP 1998 SOS Bombs 7"EP 1997 Smalltown CDEP 1996 Enjoy Life 7"EP 1995