Joe Flood Biography
Joe Flood
Joe Flood Biography
Playing a variety of stringed instruments, Joe Flood delivers original material in what Karen Schoemer in the New York Times called "a gravelly voice that perfectly straddles the fence between country and the blues." His songs inhabit a place where folk and blues roots meet the craft of Tin Pan Alley and the soul of the street. They have been covered by artists as diverse as the New Orleans style jazz band The Flying Neutruinos and Alt Country Chanteuse Laura Cantrell. His individual style has made him a favored co-writer of Levon Helm of the legendary group The Band as well as producer/guitarist Eric "Roscoe" Ambel.
Joe's delivery on record and in person is straightforward, real, and engaging, a style that is a direct result of his years as a busker and journeyman musician whose survival depended on making it count every time he played or opened his mouth to sing. Joe hit the road at eighteen playing the streets of San Francisco, New Orleans, Montreal, and Boston, and seeing forty-six of the fifty states. He then headed to Europe where he honed his songwriting skills and toured the continent with, among others, the Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band, a continually evolving unit whose alumni include Joan Osborne, Madeleine Peyroux, Japanese harmonica virtuoso Chikara Tsuzuki, and such mainstays of the New York R&B scene as Mr. Thing and Ron Sunshine. While playing with the Lost Wandering, Joe wrote many of the early jazz-flavored songs that would later appear on his disc "Hotel Albert."
Settling in New York in 1988, Joe formed the group Mumbo Gumbo with songwriter George Breakfast. Their regular Sunday night gig at the Rodeo Bar on Third Avenue was always filled with guest appearances, and the stage crowded with musicians before the night was out. Among the people who came to listen and sit in were bluesman Pinetop Perkins, Joe Ely, Eric Andersen, Rick Danko, and the cream of New York's roots musicians. Mumbo Gumbo released two songs on the Diesel Only label, both produced by friend Jono Manson and both receiving high critical praise.
Joe's songs were also immediately being covered by many of the artists on the thriving New York roots scene which spawned Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, and Joan Osborne. Joan covered Joe's song "Night on the Town" for an early live recording and his tune "Miss Fabulous" --later used by HBO as its summer theme--was covered by numerous local bands and called "Best Original Song" on the New York Blues scene by New York Newsday. Joe also continued working as a session musician, playing on , as well as writing and producing, spots for Sesame Street, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon.
George and Joe also joined Jono Manson and members of the Surreal McCoy's to form The Dogs which also included drummer and piano player extraordinair Howie Wyeth. Howie and Joe had been writing songs together since his arrival in New York, and while The Dogs only made one recording, many of the songs Joe wrote with Howie during this period have since appeared on Joe's solo recordings. During this period Joe also began to collaborate with members of The Band whom he had met some years before while staying in Woodstock, New York. Joe wrote many songs with guitarist Jim Weider (their "Written in Stone" appears on "New Kind of Blue") as well as Levon Helm and worked occasionally as a side man with Rick Danko. "Move to Japan," a collaboration between Levon, Jim, Joe, and keyboardist Stan Szelest appeared on The Band's 1993 relesase "Jericho."
Following the break up of Mumbo Gumbo, Joe began a prolific writing partnership with his old friend Jono Manson, contributing at least one song to each of Jono's solo projects. Jono's recording of "Miss Fabulous" was featured in the film "Kingpin," and Joe and Jono contributed a song to Kevin Costner's film "The Postman." Joe now lives in Guilford, CT., not far from where he grew up in the quarry town of Portland, with his wife Liz Grace, is an illustrator, and their two children, Liam and Nora. Most recently he contributed some mandolin and background vocals to Jono Manson's new recording for Italy's Club de Musique, and is looking forward eagerly to the release of "New Kind of Blue" on that same label.
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