Artist description Joe is a solo artist who plays with various musicians.

Music Style Lyric Conscious Rock

Musical Influences Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, The Velvet Underground, Shane MacGowan, Woody Guthrie, Jim Morrison, St. John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Patti Smith, Captain Beefheart, Smokey Robinson and Muhammed Ali.

Similar Artists It's hard to peg but think Gene Vincent meets Van Morrsion at Bill Monroe's wake.

Artist History Joe is originally from Detroit, MI. He's spent the last 7 years in Nashville as a singer/songwriter, poet and visual artist where he's just completed his first album.

Instruments Joe Nolan: vocals, acoustic guitar, tin-whistle, harmonica; Patt Flynn: acoustic guitar, banjo, vocals; Jim Hoke: accordians, flute, clarinet, bass harmonica; Dave Pomeroy: bass; Cactus Moser and Bobby Warren: percussion; Dennis Wage; organ; Tramp: fiddle, mandolin; Pat Bergeson: harmonicas; Renee Marino and Michele Rodgers: vocals.

Albums Plain Jane

Press Reviews Clay Steakley, PERFORMING SONGWRITER MAGAZINE- What sets Joe Nolan apart from the common singer-songwriter stock is his unique, masterful command of language. Nolan is, at heart, a poet. On Plain Jane, Nolan’s breezy eloquent stanzas are adorned with engaging folk arrangements and his reedy, expressive voice. The inescapable influence of Bob Dylan is omnipresent throughout this record, as are Simon and Garfunkel (on the song “Rush Hour Blues”), Leonard Cohen (on “Mad, Bad, Dangerous”) and Van Morrison (on “Young and Beautiful”). But Nolan’s use of his influences never translates as derivative. Instead, it communicates a sameness of spirit that he shares with these artists, and, though the music here is rooted in the sounds of the 1960s folk revival and Southern blues, it stays as visceral and relevant as a favorite neighborhood bar or the memory of a first lover. Plain Jane is eminently listenable, and its lyrical content stands alone as well-crafted, effective poetry. In particular, “San Francisco Girl” and the superlative “Mad, Bad, Dangerous” communicate a sensitivity to language and human relationships in slippery, breathless cascades of riveting images. THE BRIDGEWORKS,Bob Littleton-"Considering that Joe's writing and performing bring to mind such hard-to-cubbyhole luminaries as Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Mickey Newbury and Kris Kristofferson, our best guess is thatNARAS will consider him "contemporary-folk" for nomination purposes, but don't walk into thisalbum expecting to always know where you are --just drift in and let Pat Flynn's excellent productiontextures surprise you as they will, along with thesong material. I'm stunned that a major label isn't onthis thing, but maybe what I hear about prevailingmediocrity is true." MUSIC REVIEW QUARTERLY July 2001-In the beginning was Bob, and he begat hundreds of offspring, but only a few actually were true to the genetic code. The first was a boy, Steve Forbert, whose debut release Alive on Arrival, circa 1978, captured Daddy Bob's wild acoustic energy and brambled poetry. The second, also a boy, is Joe Nolan, whose debut Plain Jane is as close to Alive on Arrival as anything, including all of Steve Forbert's work, has been since then. Never have I said that any artist deserves to be compared directly to Bob Dylan because while many have imitated, few have been able to connect directly to the source. Forbert did, and then lost the connection. The same could well happen to Joe Nolan, but for the moment he is hooked up to and pumping the true spirit of Dylan's first realization of his own style of music. It was in that flush of discovery that Dylan wrote the material that appeared in part on his first greatest hits volume and then completely on his greatest hits volume two. Joe Nolan goes to "Maggie's Farm"-era Dylan, not to copy but to recapture the feeling, and he pulls it off very well on Plain Jane. Plain Jane is full of strummed acoustic guitars, harmonica played energetically, and the occasional accordion or organ to fill out the fun energy properly. Other pieces - banjo, mandolin, flute, percussion, tin whistle - come in at times, but they take attention to hear because the basic push of the acoustic energy and Nolan's vocal work captures the interest. Joe Nolan's voice is a great one, not because it is ultra-polished but because it has a pleasant tone and carries with it a full sense of the fun of working a good song. Likewise the playing is certainly good (New Grass Revival's Pat Flynn plays on and co-produces this release), but the feeling is the primary concern. Nolan provides a fair variety of songs from slower, thoughtful numbers to humorous, fast paced ones. His lyrics celebrate Dylan's penchant for quick rhyming sequences that bounce joyfully off each other, not so much for poetic insight as the sheer fun of the sound. Sometimes just toying with words yields a potential insight, and Nolan seems content to let that happen if it should. To his credit, his songs do have sharp stories and content, but as with the instrumental work, story content sharpness is a secondary consideration if a better sounding rhyme comes along. Joe Nolan appears to be a young guy with a fair amount of music behind him already. Whatever has happened, he seems to have no fear of entering the sacrosanct turf associated with Bob Dylan and setting up his own lemonade stand. Over eleven songs on his debut, he only makes one misstep, and that's on "Shipwreck Song," a song that feels too much like Gordon Lightfoot to belong on a recording that matches up well with far better material. Joe Nolan has a lot of talent, and Plain Jane makes that obvious. Hopefully not many writers will draw this same kind of direct connection between Nolan's work and Dylan's. When Steve Forbert released Alive on Arrival, the critics hammered home the Dylan comparisons, and Steve could never quite recover from the burden those comparisons put on him. Joe Nolan needs to keep his sense of humor and perspective intact to realize that all he has to do is keep making his music his way. If the next one sounds nothing like Dylan, that will be fine, just as long as it is true to who he is at that time. And should that happen, he - and we - will still have that once-in-a-blue-moon recording that feels so good it could sustain us even if we were stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again. So grab this Plain Jane and take it for a turn around the dance floor, because for all of its plainness, it's a genuine beauty. DAILY NEWS (Los Angeles) 4 stars, Bob Strauss- A singer-songwriter whose dense, descriptive poetry is almost on par with his harmonica idol Dylan and whose street-corner sentimentality turns tuneful circles around Billy Joel, Nolan is an exuberant romantic who rarely allows his lyrical enthusiasm to get ahead of his insights. He can sing about a shipwreck, a likable if undertalented club entertainer or an assortment of flawed but nonetheless adored young women with equal authority and in lovingly observed specifics. He even works a creaky carnival metaphor with witty originality. This is smart folk-pop of the highest order, and it's no small crime that a talent as big as Nolan has to sell the stuff himself. So buy it already, at www.joenolan.com

Additional Info Joe is also an excellent poet and visual artist. More of his work can be found at his web-site.

Location Howell, MI - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).