Joe Newberry is a Missouri native and North Carolina transplant who has played music most of his life. His powerful and innovative banjo playing has won contests around the country, including first-place at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival.
A prizewinning guitarist, fiddler, and singer as well, Joe plays with Big Medicine, bigmedmusic.com, which won first place Traditional Band at the 2002 Appalachian String Band Music Festival. From the stage of A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor said of Big Medicine "That's how string band music is supposed to sound. absolutely effortless. They're just a great band - I love this band."
He can be heard playing banjo and singing with Bill Hicks, Mike Craver, and Jim Watson - three former members of the Red Clay Ramblers.
Joe can also be heard with the Grey Eagles - a trio with Rafe Stefanini and Jim Collier. You can find out more about the "Silver Haired Monarchs of the Sky" at myspace.com/greyeagles
He also performs in a duo with mandolin master Mike Compton.
When not working as a writer and editor, he does solo and studio work, and teaches and performs at festivals at home and abroad.
More music clips and glowing reviews of his debut CD "Two Hands," can be found at cdbaby.com/joenewberry.
ABOUT JOE'S PLAYING
I have had the pleasure of playing music with Joe Newberry for a number of years now, and I continue to be astonished at his talent as an instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Put a banjo, guitar, or fiddle in his hands, and it sounds like he has played it most of his life. Come to think of it, he has. However, if I think of one instrument that is exceptional in Joe Newberrys hands, it is the banjo.
Joe's banjo playing has long been heard as part of the band sound of such outfits as the Tar Heel Hot Shots and Big Medicine (bigmedmusic.com)
. Where he really shines, however, is as a solo player. When it is just Joe's two hands a-playing, you get to really appreciate his style--based in traditional music, and inventive without going off in some esoteric direction. Driving at times, sensitive at others, with subtle complexity in rhythm and melodic variation. Beautiful tone, and real feeling. And it is the latter that I think will ultimately pull you in. Here is not a cold, mechanical banjoist, but a musician with heart to go along with his formidable chops. This is rooted music.
Joe may be innovative, but at the same time you can tell that he loves where he comes from and that his musical roots feed him. Although he lives in North Carolina now, Joe grew up in Missouri, a state also rich in traditional rural music; his Grandfather was a hunting and fishing buddy of the great Ozark folk song collector Vance Randolph. Singing old Ozark songs was part of Joe's upbringing, and he intimately knows the music of some of the great Missouri fiddlers.
Along with his instrumental skills, Joe Newberry writes songs that you won't forget; "Resurrection Day," a personal favorite, is one of those. What it comes down to is this: Newberry makes some awfully fine music, and its the real deal. Listen and enjoy. Here's a banjo, guitar, and fiddle in good hands.
--Kenny Jackson (kenejackson.com)
