Performing Songwriter Magazine

Emory Joseph
Labor & Spirits
Produced by Emory Joseph
Bay Area singer-songwriter Emory Joseph has lots of friends in high places. Drummers such as Kenny Aronoff and Levon Helm, bassists T-Bone Wolk (Elvis Costello) and Myron Dove (Santana), and keyboardist Jon Carroll (Mary Chapin Carpenter), not to mention mix engineer Nathaniel Kunkel (Lyle Lovett, James Taylor) all played a role in creating this swampy, Cajun-fried mix of blues and roots. The loose, inventive melodies and sing-along verses will make you want to dance a little jig and probably laugh out loud. Itıs hard not to love songs about rum and coffee, happy children, little wiener dogs and other snapshots of everyday hanginı-out-on-the-backporch life. Joseph might call Berkeley home, but his songs have the imagery of the deep, steamy South.