Who’s Joe Bear?
Joe Bear and his dog Blue
Joe worked his way through the early days in the city hardware store, in the freight yards of Virginia, gigging in clubs when he was 14. He grew up on Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, James Brown, Monk and Rollins. The only white kid in a soul band, he toured the South back in the day when that just wasn’t done. The group, Wayne and the Exceptions, recorded “Have Faith” which got to “34 with a bullet” its first week on the black AM stations. Then the label pulled it. Depressed and downhearted he took to cloud nine.
Joe found his way up North to film school and started building sound tracks for industrial and feature films. That went real well for years until it didn’t.
Original songs started to flow from Joe’s pen not for projects, just because. Two new albums and they’re still coming. These songs are his best work. You can taste the urban and down home flavors mixing well in every piece. It’s all about the groove, but the lyrics’ll get ya’.
And check out Joe’s friends on the album. Including Grammy winner Johnny Lee Schell who’s played with Bonnie Raitt and John Fogarty. Mike Finnigan on B3 whose credits go back to Electric Lady Land with Jimi Hendrix, currently on the road with Crosby, Stills & Nash. Greg Leisz, pedal steel, who’s frequently traveling with K.D. Lang. The recording and musicianship are absolutely first string!
