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. Inspired by their songs and stories, Joe hit the road travelling and busking, soaking up the sights and sounds of everywhere from Birmingham to Berlin, eventually hitch-hiking his way round England, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Belgium. 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 four singles and two albums they finally split in 2001. Following the band's demise, Joe returned to his roots, 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. Here were all these different styles I loved with a passion, and so I set about trying to mix them. Trying to marry punk, folk and country without treading on tradition." With the aim of "making an album a year until I drop down dead" Joe's last offering "Me & Billy The Kid" showcased his love of storytelling like never before. Doomed soldiers rubbed shoulders with hobo visionaries and jaded pub singers, each with their own tale to tell. A giant step forward. Never one to resist a challenge, Joe responded to a request by Scarborough-based writer Graham Rhodes for some music to accompany a play he’d written about the First World War. A thirteen song collection titled "Music From Potter's Field" was released in February 2009. "I totally immersed myself in this one, and my nightmares you would not want. But it was a real labour of love and I was sad when it was finished really. I’m taking this one round schools in a kind of musical history lesson. Trying to bring the past to life”. A further album "Forwards Is Just Backwards In Reverse" is already planned for 2010. "I don't do standing still. Got to keep working. Got to keep pushing myself. If you ever stop it’s over isn’t it? That just isn’t for me. I’ll be around a good while yet." DISCOGRAPHY As Joe Solo: Music From Potter's Field CDLP 2009 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

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