Better Than Average Joe

By: Lee H | in: Music |

Joe Purdy is a bit of an enigma. If you perform the typical Google search you’ll get the typical artist information: his official website, his MySpace page, some YouTube videos and his Wikipedia entry, but very little information about the man himself.

Joe Purdy

Everyone that has heard of him (though I’ve never physicly met a single person who has) knows that he’s from Arkansas. He moved to LA in 2001 and recorded quite a few albums thanks to CD Baby. Beginning in 2004 his music started appearing on wildly popular TV shows that I’ve never watched. ‘Wash Away (Reprise)’, was featured on Lost, 5 of his songs were featured on Grey’s Anatomy and ‘Rainy Day Lament’ was featured on House M.D.

What you will find on websites that bear his name are message boards with comments like “Having not heard of Joe Purdy before I must say this album is nothing short of brilliant.” or “I stumbled on Joe Purdy while looking for another artist and have never looked back.” and “my parents are getting divorced. They’re fighting SO much. But I just run upstairs and listen
to his music.” The people have spoken.

Joe Purdy

He’s often compared to Van Morrison, Damien Rice and Ray LaMontagne. His earlier albums were all acoustic until he recorded Only Four Seasons in 2006 with a full band. His current album Canyon Joe is his first solo acoustic album since 2004’s Julie Blue. It’s hard to pinpoint his best efforts (He’s had 8 since 2001, 3 of which were in 2006 alone.) seeing as everything he’s released so far has been stellar. It just depends on if you like “happy joe” or “sad Joe”, “accompanied joe” or “acoustic Joe.” I prefer “sad/acoustic Joe.”

Sure, we don’t know if Joe likes Cap’n Crunch in the morning. We don’t know if he wears boxers of briefs.
We don’t know if he thinks Lindsay Lohan is hot or not but what we do know is that he makes great music and what else do you need, really?

FYI: According to his official message board his birthday is April 19. He’s 27, he plays a Gibson J-50 he’s currently on tour in the UK, he’s got two more albums on the way called “Take My Blanket And Go” and “Last Clock On The Wall” and I’m pretty sure he likes Cap’n Crunch because honestly, who doesn’t like Cap’n Crunch?

Joe Purdy - Why You

Joe Purdy’s Official Site
Joe Purdy on MySpace

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Posted on May 14, 2007

Comments

5 Responses to “Better Than Average Joe”

Kendall on May 14th, 2007 5:02 pm

Cap’n Crunch is best when there are Crunch Berries. And Joe Purdy is the guy I have heard all over and never who he was! It’s true…

Charbarred on May 15th, 2007 3:53 am

Cool find Lee. He does remind me a lot of Damien Rice but without all the self importance (which is a good thing).

Ryan of the RSL Weblog on May 15th, 2007 4:00 pm

I am digging Mr. Purdy - his voice in this one has echoes - interestingly - of Ben Harper. Very cool. Good one!

DThompson on May 16th, 2007 9:02 pm

I think “Wash Away (Reprise)” was the song playing during one of my favorite moments of Lost’s first season. The show had been ending on a song, ostensibly playing on Hurley’s portable CD player. Then, in the middle of this song it just stopped to be abruptly replaced by the sound of waves and wind. Hurley looks down at his player with its permanently dead batteries and says “Rats.”-Cut to black. A great way to throw a loop into the then popular OC-style “pop song fueled montage” ending.
Great article Lee!

karen m on June 6th, 2007 11:32 am

no that was a damien rice song on Lost when hurley’s batteries run out, but Joe did have a song on Lost on a different episode.

joe has a few nyc shows coming up if you are in the area - june 13 solo and june 27 with the band!