JERRY JOSEPH : BABY, YOU'RE THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING

JERRY JOSEPH : BABY, YOU'RE THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING

The War I Finally Won
The Man Who Would Be King
20 20 Moons
Book Burning
Canadian Boyfriend
Carmen Miranda
Am I OK
Loving Kindness
Leaving The Lights On

Label : Cosmo Sex School Records

Release Date : September 29, 2023

Length : 41:54

Review (Folk Radio UK) : Jerry Joseph cares about two things: music and truth. As a result, Baby, You’re the Man Who Would Be King scorches and stings like a mother. These nine tunes take no prisoners, they burn with an intensity lacking in much of what passes for music these days. The lyrics leave scars, which is as it should be. Sometimes, the truth hurts. In recalling the sessions for the album, recorded in New York City with players whose passion burns, Joseph’s existential joy boils over, “I felt like a little kid learning to blow up shit. It was actually fun for me, and I kept all my fingers!” High praise indeed. Written in 2020 during the height of the lockdown, he worked from a vintage camper parked in the driveway of his home in Portland. The songs that emerged burrow deep into your soul. Lines hit you like a George Foreman punch, “Slashing and raging and gnashing of teeth/ A coming of age or just out of reach/ I should have listened when you told me to learn how to breathe/ Now I’m waiting for the sun.” All the while, the guitars and drums burn the bridges they cross, the organ comes in, and you’re not sure whether it’s 1968 or 2023. There’s a touch of Dylan in the harmonica on tunes like “Loving Kindness,” yet the lyrics are more direct, slow and impassioned; the song builds while there’s a sense of what’s at stake in this new age. “Bang your head again/ To help forget/ So you’re remembering/ It’s not over yet.” Despite what you might be feeling, despite the cost, there’s still the possibility for “Loving Kindness” that, though alone, can keep one on the path, whatever path it is. Stripping away at the features that defy us, Joseph realizes that what’s left isn’t necessarily what he really wants to find. “Time to deconstruct/ The architecture of my mask/ Keep me from ripping out my eyes.” While things may seem bleak, there are also beams of hope, no matter how small they seem. Yet they can also be pretty bleak, “the problem with choice/ Is you have to choose.” This can be a problem since making a choice requires action, and in the 21st century, it can be easier to just look at our iPads and figure out where to eat tonight. Thinking too hard can be a problem. On Baby, You’re the Man Who Would Be King, Jerry Joseph doesn’t just ask you to think; it’s a requirement. Be prepared!

Review (Americana Highways) : Another interesting artist making a recording in the beautiful boroughs of NYC. Produced by Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (electric & acoustic guitars/keys/percussion/harmony vocals) this set features captivating Big Apple musicians & according to the press release Jerry Joseph (vocals/acoustic guitar/harmonica) wrote the songs in a vintage camping trailer parked in his Portland driveway during what else? The pandemic. Jerry Joseph Jerry Joseph came to NY in the summer of 2021 to lay down tracks at Eric’s Brooklyn studio. There are 9 Portland trailer-composed romps on this 42-minute Baby, You’re The Man Who Would Be King (Drops Sept. 29-Cosmo Sex Records). Jerry says this effort has more simplicity, truth & vulnerability than others. Maybe the pandemic gave birth to a lot of creativity since lots of press releases I saw went out of their way to include that nasty business in the creation of music. But some like this one were probably worth the toss of the dice. Willie Nile’s zeal & gruffness permeate a couple of tunes (“….the gravity of love”). Excellent. I believe Jerry & Eric succeeded in slathering some New York City mustard into their musical knish. I’m from Jersey so I really like music like this. I think Jerry Joseph rescued himself by coming to the bright NYC avenues & lovely Heins-LaFarge tiled subterranean subways of our steel & glass jungle land city. He added some swag to his savviest of tunes. Personally, I think NYC may also have been given a creative heft by having Mr. Joseph here to unlock what this city once represented with deep-fried lyrics & attitude music. Reference the likes of Willie Nile & Garland Jeffries. Jerry glosses over his “Canadian Boyfriend” & “Leaving The Lights On.” Both have rich Garland-isms that infuse with Jeffries’ vocalisms. I like that soulfulness Jerry manages to tap into on these tunes — all done raw & elegant thanks to Jerry’s voice & the deft touch of Roscoe with all the absorbing musicians. Lou Reed would admire this band. Tight grooves & vibes with a breadth of the beat generation mesh through the melodies to be excavated. The atmosphere’s always genuine. Jerry isn’t a New Yorker, but he’s captured the essence. There’s even a Graham Parker embodiment in “Carmen Miranda.” Not imitation — but a capture of the Parker spirit. Highlights – “The War I Finally Won,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” “20 20 Moons,” “Book Burning,” “Canadian Boyfriend,” “Carmen Miranda,” “Loving Kindness” & “Leaving The Lights On.” Musicians – Jeremy Chatzky (bass), Phil Cimino (drums), Charlie Giordano (Hammond organ/Wurlitzer electric piano/accordion), Mary Lee Kortes & Casey Neil (harmony vocals), Joe Flood (fiddle) & Cody Nilsen (pedal steel guitar).

Review (Glide Magazine) : We’re splitting hairs taking issue with singer-songwriter Jerry Joseph’s producer choices. On Baby, You’re the Man Who Would Be King he opts for the respected producer, the hard rocking, alt-country Eric “Roscoe: Ambel and the best roots rockers in NYC versus the literate songwriter Patterson Hood and the rugged attack of the Drive-by Truckers on his 2020 breakthrough The Beautiful Madness. Rest assured that Joseph is in good hands. And, given that Joseph had a goal of making a “NYC sounding” record, he called on the right guy. Joseph and Ambel had met in February of 2018 when their bands shared the stage at a gig in Brooklyn and the two forged a bond that Joseph tapped into. Ambel recruited the musicians you often see on the best roots/Americana albums originating in NYC – bassist Jeremy Chatzky, drummer Phil Cimino, E-Street Band keyboardist Charlie Giordano, with Casey Neil and Mary Lee Kortes on harmony, Joe Flood on fiddle, and Cody Nilsen on pedal steel. Ambel played assorted guitars, keyboards, percussion, and harmony vocals. Joseph arrived with a batch of songs that he had written during the pandemic in a vintage camping trailer parked in his driveway. He was striving for more simplicity in the songs and envisioned them to be rendered in an acoustic harmonica-in-the-rack Springsteen way. The opener “The War I Finally Won” encapsulates this vision with Joseph on acoustic guitar with the harmonica, Cimino laying down insistent beats, and Giordano playing Mary Lee Kortes’ Hammond A-100 organ. Like most of Joseph’s songs, it’s abstract but he was fighting procrastination and disappointment about not being able to tour his career-defining album due to the pandemic – “Some days just accept the battle/Hide in the trees or get back in the saddle/Spit up blood with an old man’s rattle/Another day’s begun” “The Man Who Would Be King” is a stomping, upbeat harmonica-laced ode to perseverance and survival with a repetitive refrain of “We’re gonna get through this” that could be applied to stormy conditions, literal or otherwise. The tempo slows for “20 20 Moons,” which speaks to the desperation on trying to preserve a relationship, akin in some sense to Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” but stacked with far better wordplay and delivered in Joseph’s roughly hewn, cigarette scarred, but consistently passionate vocal. The steady rocking “Book Burning” is a metaphorical expression of welled-up anger in putting a relationship behind him, extinguishing all vestiges of memory. The sound gets very sparse, just his harmonica and the piano that opens “Canadian Boyfriend,” one of the weaker tracks in that lacks the hooks and indelible choruses that imbue most of the others. Joseph, possibly in his quest to find some relief during those shut-down days, lands on the image of the “Brazilian Bombshell,” the popular singer, famed for her signature fruit hat in “Carmen Miranda,” assuring us that if nothing else, he can still dance as the band drives hard to those particular words. The upbeat “Am I Okay” has perhaps the most infectious melody in this batch of nine, making it impossible to not sing along with Joseph in that enduring three-word refrain. Ambel adds the right touch with his tremolo-soaked guitar solo while Giordano’s swirling organ and the swelling background vocals add to the bliss. The third single “Loving Kindness” is another potent one, though on a far more serious level. It’s about forgiveness, the ability to forgive oneself, a theme touched on in some of the earlier tracks but according to Joseph, inspired by fear at a time when “we were expecting then President Trump to call on the Proud Boys and local militias to ‘liberate’ Portland.” Fortunately, he shies away from those details in the song, instead singing it like it might be the last one he ever sings. He goes out in rocking form with “Leaving the Lights On,” rife with yet another indelible chorus that will linger for days. While he’s assertively protective, he also seems by turns scared, angry, or relieved. Like the best singer-songwriters, Joseph’s songs are open to multiple interpretations. The collaboration with Ambel fits naturally. It’s another gem, and a as potent a follow-up as we could hope for.