Joel Rafael

Inspired from the folk music increase of the first ’60s, singer/songwriter Joel Rafael bought a guitar in his teens and started writing songs within the design of Woody Guthrie, Ramblin’ Jack port Elliott, and Bob Dylan. Given birth to in Chicago but elevated within the San Gabriel Valley beyond LA, Rafael became mixed up in folk picture of LA before proceeding north towards the Pacific Northwest in the past due ’60s. He’d eventually go back to California, where he resolved down in North NORTH PARK County to improve children. During the ’70s and ’80s, Rafael continuing to create folk tracks and perform single and in a variety of groupings around Southern California. It wasn’t before early ’90s, nevertheless, that his single career begun to remove. In 1994, he released his initial record fronting his very own group, the Joel Rafael Music group. Finding some grip within the vocalist/songwriter-friendly globe of AAA radio, the record continued to earn the NORTH PARK CCMA prize and Rafael also gained the brand new Folk Rising Songwriter award through the Kerrville Folk Celebration. The group released a follow-up record, Old Timber Barn, in 1996, once again on Rafael’s personal Reluctant Angel Information. By enough time of the third recording, 2000’s Hopper, that they had authorized with Jackson Browne’s Inside Recordings. In 2002, he published several songs and made up the backdrop music for a fresh radio play of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath which was presented on NPR. A longtime lover of famous folksinger Woody Guthrie, Rafael became section of Jimmy LaFave’s Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway ensemble. The touring group presented a variety of songwriters spending tribute to Guthrie’s music, and in 2003 Rafael released his personal tribute album known as Woodeye: Tunes of Woody Guthrie. The recording included guest looks by Vehicle Dyke Parks, Jennifer Warnes, and Ellis Paul. Another volume known as Woodyboye: Tunes of Woody Guthrie and Stories Worth Informing, Vol. 2 adopted in 2005 and presented four previously unheard Guthrie lyrics to which Rafael published music. After dedicating a lot of the 10 years to honored Woody Guthrie’s legacy, Rafael came back to his personal tunes in 2008 with Thirteen Tales High. The recording included the protest track “THAT IS My Nation,” which presented visitor vocals from David Crosby and Graham Nash. His eighth recording, America GET BACK, found its way to 2012 and he continuing to tour, carrying out with everyone from Sheryl Crow to Taj Mahal. Later on that season, he was also asked to execute on the Woody Guthrie Centennial Songbook present on the Kennedy Middle for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He shipped his ninth record, Baladista, in early 2015.