Prescott Park Arts Festival presents: Joe Purdy

Description

Joe Purdy, a celebrated singer/songwriter from Arkansas, put in his time working at a loading dock, and as a counselor at a private high school, before his song Wash Away became synonymous with the 2004 season of ABC’s Lost. 

 Purdy is more aptly described as a troubadour – the term, as archaic as it may seem, refers moreover to the idea of a communicator of folklore through song – one who travels and tells stories using the effective medium of music. 

 He understands that his own live music tradition has as much to do with commanding captivated, pin-drop silence as it does prompting roars. Most notably, however, in recent years the self-described “hillbilly” has come to see the world and his role in it somewhat differently, charting that direction on his latest album, “Who Will Be Next?” where he firmly plants his feet deep in the tradition of folk artists such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Phil Ochs, applying his unique skills as writer and vocalist as a passionate observer and participant of our times. 

In the same vein, Purdy has chosen to release his fourteen albums on his own independent label, and with the help of a strong and ever-growing fan base, he has been able to sell a staggering 1 million direct track downloads in the US without ever signing to a label.