mollycoulter.com

The urge to purge
The honest ramblings of songwriter, rock guitarist Jerry Joseph
By Molly Coulter
Published on 09/20/2007

jerry joseph.jpg

Photo courtesy of Jerry Joseph.

More than two decades ago a raspy voice from Portland, Ore., started covering the dismal and the dour with a new folk force that set ablaze the genre’s standards. Jerry Joseph called on his life’s woes and triumphs to expose the gritty stories of America. He began with a Colorado band of hippies called Little Women, set out solo and led the Jackmormons, teamed up with hard-hitting players in Stockholm Syndrome and comes to Flagstaff in a trio this week. He says his music is his work, not his passion or his art. He says he can’t call his catalogue of 200 to 300 songs prolific. He is self-deprecating and blunt, but even Joseph has to agree that “honest” is a commendation synonymous with his work.
     “The word that I hate the most is the word ‘earnest.’ ‘Earnest’ is Ben Harper and I can’t stand that music,” Joseph says. “Everything is super f**king important and it’s not important. It’s a dumb rock band.”
     I ask him to describe a typical show and he balks. “It’s very hard to be objective,” he says before putting it openly. “It’s an angry little barefoot bald man screaming about whatever for two hours. I’m a little guy with a Napoleon complex.”
     Joseph says he’s more attached to playing live as it’s “more in my face. It’s instant gratification,” as compared to creating and laying down tracks for albums. “I usually only make one a year and as I’m getting older hopefully I’m getting a little better at it so it’s not like pulling teeth,” Joseph says. “But I never hear them again. It’s not like I put on my own music.”
     A few years back the Southern blues, rock jam giants Widespread Panic began covering some of Joseph’s songs and turn to him still for fresh material. “They are written specifically for Panic,” he says. “I wouldn’t even know how to play them. I’m trying to give them an opportunity to own them artistically or whatever.”
     Joseph says he’s typically alone and as far from distraction as geographically possible when he writes music.
     “I tend to write in clusters. I don’t write all the time. I don’t sit down with my guitar at all,” he says. “I’ve got a specific reason to do it, like I’m going to make a record. But I am pretty affected about where I am. This last batch of songs I wrote in Harlem, so it sounds like it a lot. I go to Central America, Mexico, wherever I can go to be by myself. I’m going to Hong Kong in a month and hopefully I can write something there.”
     “It’s only the last couple of years that I’ve been playing with all sorts of different lineups of musicians,” Joseph says. Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons started up in 1996, aptly taking the name from Joseph’s battle with heroine addiction and recovery that led him to Salt Lake City. His collaborations include five-piece synthesis Stockholm Syndrome featuring guitarist Eric McFadden and Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools. Joseph and Schools co-created the group realizing their contrasting musical styles and perspectives could form a rock-hard base and additional talented players could fill out the sound. Joseph says he’ll shift focus to a duo with drummer Steve Drizos who has toured and recorded with Joseph in the past. The pair cut an album due for release in December or January, but tie-ups with their label are hanging it in the balance. Joseph says they are aiming for the band name The Denmark Vessey’s, which their recording company can’t swallow. Joseph says most of the country outside of Charleston, S.C., might need to Google “Denmark Vessey.”
     “He’s the black slave that almost pulled off the largest slave rebellion in American history,” he says. The upcoming album is a tribute to heroes, criminals and vigilantes. The band name seems suitable, but Joseph says, “part of the problem [with Vessey] was to kill every White person. However, here in Harlem he’s pretty f**king cool.”
     Joseph answers my questions via cell phone as he walks to the bank near his home. He apologizes from the get-go, telling me there’s always someone screaming on the streets. Throughout the conversation I hear his assertion is correct.
     “Harlem is funny,” he says. “

One street

’s cool and the next one is pretty scary.”
     Though he’s commonly associated with Portland, Ore., Joseph says he spent time just south of Flagstaff as well.
     “I’ve been playing Flagstaff since 1982,” he says. “I have a mixed relationship with it. When I was a kid I lived for a little while outside of Sedona. I have friends there. I’ve had a lot of interaction with it and if anything, it feels like we don’t play there enough. It’s an important place to play if you’re going through Arizona. This tour we’re going out of our way to play there. We’re literally just driving down to northern Arizona to stop in Flagstaff.”
     Joseph’s voice sounds a bit like Bruce Cockburn or Van Morrison. You can hear Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen’s influences and he says he admires Elvis Costello, who epitomizes the craft of bizarre lyrical tales that Joseph often creates. But when I ask what musicians continue to influence him he plainly says, “I don’t know if there is something that I draw on continually. If I haven’t got my own voice by now, I’m running a little late.”
     Jerry Joseph, Steve Drizos and Junior Ruppel will play Sun, Sept. 23 at Mogollon Brewing Co.,

15 N. Agassiz St

. The show is $10 and starts at 8 p.m. Local jamsters Sick Finger Guru are slated to open. For more information, call 773-8950.

’s cool and the next one is pretty scary.” Though he’s commonly associated with Portland, Ore., Joseph says he spent time just south of Flagstaff as well. “I’ve been playing Flagstaff since 1982,” he says. “I have a mixed relationship with it. When I was a kid I lived for a little while outside of Sedona. I have friends there. I’ve had a lot of interaction with it and if anything, it feels like we don’t play there enough. It’s an important place to play if you’re going through Arizona. This tour we’re going out of our way to play there. We’re literally just driving down to northern Arizona to stop in Flagstaff.” Joseph’s voice sounds a bit like Bruce Cockburn or Van Morrison. You can hear Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen’s influences and he says he admires Elvis Costello, who epitomizes the craft of bizarre lyrical tales that Joseph often creates. But when I ask what musicians continue to influence him he plainly says, “I don’t know if there is something that I draw on continually. If I haven’t got my own voice by now, I’m running a little late.” Jerry Joseph, Steve Drizos and Junior Ruppel will play Sun, Sept. 23 at Mogollon Brewing Co., . The show is $10 and starts at 8 p.m. Local jamsters Sick Finger Guru are slated to open. For more information, call 773-8950.

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