Joe Johnson performs "Dark Horse Pale Rider" w/ Jesh Yancey

107 Manitou Avenue,Manitou Springs CO 80829

12 March, 2022

Description

Joe Johnson performs "Dark Horse Pale Rider" w/ Jesh Yancey Lulu's Downstairs Presents ALL AGES Joe Johnson Jesh Yancey Joe Johnson performs "Dark Horse Pale Rider" with Jesh Yancey Doors 7pm Show 8pm Raised an hour drive from New Orleans in Mississippi, a state that has produced the very core of American music, Johnson grew up with great respect for the blues, gospel, and country sound that has defined the area's artistic heritage. Joe's own family has contributed to that great legacy. His Grandfather, the noted early Nashville Country artist B.J. "the D.J." Johnson, was a recording engineer, disc jockey, and Grand Ole Opry performer and many in his family were and are well known Gospel performers. Joe began his career in the late 90’s touring around Mississippi before settling for a while in the music-rich city of Hattiesburg, playing house parties and bars like The Thirsty Hippo, T Bone Records, and Gus' Cafe alongside some of the greats in the scene including Cary Hudson, Chance Fisher, Thomas Jackson, Mark Mann, This Orange Four, and countless others. Since 2004 Joe has called the westside of Colorado Springs home, spending his first seven years fronting the rock and roll band "Creating a Newsense", in the process building an avid cult fanbase, releasing four albums, and playing hundreds of shows on the road and close to home, helping to establish the foundation of what is now a burgeoning Colorado Springs music community. In 2011 Joe released his debut solo effort "A Time To Dance" on Pueblo, Colorado-based Blank Tape Records. It was a stark departure from his previous work, a minimalist acoustic folk album recorded on reel to reel tape with songs of hope, despair, longing, and loss. The album won him many new fans while also introducing some longtime listeners to a softer and more story-based side of his work. In 2013 Joe recorded his second offering on Blank Tape with a band featuring some of the best players in Southern Colorado's folk and Americana music scene. "New West Sound" mixes saloon country and bluegrass gospel with dirty blues rock and lonesome ballads, all while maintaining a steady thread of lyricism and storytelling. Following the dissolution of Blank Tape Records, Joe returned to recording and releasing music independently with the 2015 single “The Champ’s Last Round” and after a period of heavy touring, the 2017 EP “St. Christopher”. In 2018 Joe unleashed his most ambitious effort to date with the album “Morgantown”. Named for the town he grew up in and where his family long called home, Morgantown featured his usual band The Wildfire along with several special guests including Hill Country Blues legend Kenny Brown as well as Colorado blues legend Grant Sabin. The album was followed by three month tour of the country, both being met with tremendously positive response. After the tour ended, Joe took some well earned time off the road and took a position as the songwriting mentor at the Colorado Springs Conservatory of Music. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Joe began work on new material he recorded at home in isolation for his next full length album. Before releasing that work, he produced four singles, one for each season, together known as “The Pandemic Collection”. This set of songs, each released in 2020, includes “On and On It Goes”, The Year of the Horse”, the very well received “Hold On”, as well as “The Death of Mary and St. Peter” which features a bonus B Side version performed by Grant Sabin. Finally in late 2021 Joe released his latest effort, the isolation recordings presented as “Dark Horse Pale Rider”. By far his most personal and intimate work, Dark Horse Pale Rider has been met with great excitement by fans old and new and features nine songs that delve deeply into the feelings of loneliness and despair that defined too many lives over the preceding months. It also features a stanza of the Gospel standard “Amazing Grace” sung with his cousin and aunt that reveals the family harmonies Joe grew up singing. Dark Horse Pale Rider is available now on vinyl and streaming worldwide. Outside of his own endeavors, Joe’s electric guitar work with Grant Sabin & The Juke Joint Highball can be heard on the album "Bourbon & Milk", which the group released in 2017, as well as in live performances by the band. He is an occasional collaborator with several artists in Colorado and across the country and he co hosts the live stream show “5th Sunday Sing” on Facebook and YouTube with fellow songwriter Brian Griffing. His music has been featured in the documentary "A Nickle and A Nail" and in the film "Making a Killing" and has been sampled and covered by artists across America as well as Europe and Australia. Joe has a genuine dedication to his family and community and a real connection to his fans the world over. WHO IS JESH YANCEY? Jesh Yancey is a folk singer and songwriter based out of Denver, Colorado. Still promoting his first full-length album, Livers and Diers, Yancey has laid the foundation for a long career as a songwriter. Jesh began playing and writing music in 2002 and has been crafting his sound ever since. After failing out of college the first time and running off to join the Navy, Yancey found himself on the Gulf Coast with a pen in his hand and something to say where the majority of the songs for Livers and Diers emerged. With influences like John Prine, Guy Clark, Todd Snider and Jerry Garcia, Jesh has established a catalogue of songs with a solid groove and an honest sentiment that takes a couple listens to fully take in. Livers and Diers is a journey from the darkest depths of ignorance to the blinding truths of everyday life and is an attempt to jolt the listener into deeper thought while their toe starts tapping. Jesh grew up in rural northeast Alabama and was raised by a cowboy and an English teacher which is where he found his way with words and a working-man’s point of view that contributes to his fearless, gritty, no-frills style. Yancey pens songs that highlight the challenges in society while leaving room for the listener to draw their own conclusions. Jesh found The High Hopes in the fall of 2018 and they've been playing everywhere that will have them ever since. The High Hopes, Lizz Hough on upright bass and Ryan Van Dyke on drums, Jef Funk on harmonica are a PsycheDeltaFolk band that allow Jesh to carry the listener through each song in any direction. One set might consist of heady jams while the next set grooves the country blues all while being original music. Jesh and his wife, Miranda, moved to the city of Denver, Colorado in July 2019 to establish roots in the rich Colorado music scene. Catch Jesh hustlin' through the city lookin' for a gig and something that rhymes! Jesh Yancey’s “Livers and Diers” is filled with great songs reflecting artistic maturity and dedication, featuring an array of musical styles. - Stephen Centanni, Lagniappe Weekly "Jesh Yancey’s new album “Livers and Diers” is a solid induction into Americana, an album that feels like it is tracing the lineage of the troubadours that have walked that long hard road before him. The tracks “Another Day” and “Eureka” have that distinctive fiddle sound and storytelling that we usually associated with Southern music. In “Another Day” Jesh shows us how important not just the music is to him, but the lyrics as well, as he delivers us a literary nod to Dylan Thomas reminding us to “rage against the dying light.” Yancey fearlessly takes on the socio-political climate with “Government Work,” tackling the issues of our youth on the border, the drinking water, the education system, the justice system, climate change, fake news, corporate welfare and the ignored working class. Reminds me of the tradition of protest songwriters from Woody Guthrie to Todd Snider. And catchy as hell, too. Another catchy-as-hell tune is “Island of Truth.” When Zach Brown hears it, he may be mad he didn’t write it. Or better yet, he’ll pay Jesh a truckload of money to record it. The title track takes an interesting turn, musically. It sounds eerily like Tom Waits. Voice isn’t nearly as whisky-soaked or cigarette-stained, though. Fans of Sturgill Simpson will dig his song “Promised Land.” And I can’t help but think of Drive-by Truckers with the song “Right Before Dawn.” It’s not only a rocking song, but again the lyrics are raw, socially inspired and an ode to the oppressed and downtrodden. In the end, Jesh Yancey suggests that for all that is wrong with the American dream, it is us, “We’re All to Blame,” but somehow the beauty is still there and worth fighting for. - Authur Nic Schuck, Native Moments, Panhandlers With southern characteristics held tight and a focus on storytelling, Yancey invites everyone to pull up a barstool and soak in his homespun wisdom. This full-length release nicely frames Yancey as one of the region’s most sought-after singer-songwriters. Twangy enough to entice country fans and with a few upbeat licks to hook rock fans, Yancey hopes you get off your keister and continue to be a Liver. - Nikki Hedrick, Beachcomber ThePauseandPlay.com Record Roundup Joe Johnson Jesh Yancey