Artist description Joe Mersch is an acoustic guitar-wielding singer/songwriter who often performs with partner JanetCurci, for vocal duo with either one or two guitaraccompaniment. On the CD: main course is acousticguitar, with sides of electric guitar, piano, bassdrums. Assorted other instruments are seasonings.

Music Style Arty acoustic folk with an ear toward fingerstyle guitar and jazz harmonies

Musical Influences Guitar: Pierre Bensusan, Ry Cooder, Bruce Cockburn. Songwriting/record production: Crowded House, Stan Ridgway, Peter Holsapple (the dB's), T Bone Burnett

Similar Artists I would say: hopefully, most of the above--at least certain aspects of them. My voice has been compared to Kenny Rankin, Neil Young and Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze. Go figure.

Artist History Joe Mersch made his first record in 1979 with then partner Carol Wallace and producer Ken Robertson. The project, titled Foreshadow, consisted of an acoustic jazz-influenced set featuring the talents of some SD local heroes: drummer/percussionist Jim Plank, and guitarist Steve O'Conner, as well as the later-to-become internationally famous Butch Lacy and Nathan East on piano and bass, respectively. The album was released while Joe was still at the University of Redlands, after graduation from which he started to explore other styles of music, working a day job and gigging with a folk-trio, while spending his summers in a Middlebury College institution for the teutonically insane (aka MA program).Right about then was the time Joe began writing outrageous songs and making experimental demos with singer-songwriter and fellow trio member Tom Petersen, unwittingly laying the groundwork for his future journey into the arcane and darkly irresistible world of studio recording. Despite these activities, however, it was felt that Joe might indeed one day need the proverbial "something to fall back on," and so it was off to the misty banks of the Rhine, where during the next three years he completed his MA, got his first teaching job, and developed his inimitably truculent solo style in a variety of German Cafés, Pubs and Garages. Didn't the Beatles do something like this? The end of the year 1986 was approaching, and Joe, with a batch of new songs, returned to his native San Diego to build a recording facility. Joining forces with former associates Petersen and Wallace, the trio was reactivated as "Mystery Play," and the new studio was home to their first, only, and eponymous release.The next few years see the dissolution of the trio, the division of the Joe/Tom set-up into separate systems, the beginning of Joe's employment at Palomar and San Diego City colleges, the inception of an acoustic duo with Janet Curci, and a string of Joe Mersch recordings.Joe and Janet began their San Diego campaign at Drowsy Maggie's in the late eighties. Since then, they have been seen at a bevy of bitchin' venues including Java Joe's, Choices, A Better World, Jane's Secret Garden, Mikey's, the Curbside Café, Miracles, La Costa Coffee Roasting, the Coffee Basket, the San Diego Folk Heritage Festival, and the San Diego Music Awards Acoustic Showcase, among others. When people at gigs ask if they're married, Joe replies "Yes, Janet is. That's her family sitting over there," at which point her husband Mark will wave. You see, since the beginning of the J&J affiliation, Janet has started a family and gone on to a lucrative career in the California public school system.Joe began to record his own projects pretty much as soon as he could hog the studio to himself. They started off pretty basic, and have evolved along an upward path of increasingly sophisticated basicness. Any complete discography would be forced to include: More Story Problems ('87), The Throes of Irony ('89), Five Smooth Stones ('91), Wisecrackin' ('93), Dance Beyond Nature ('95); and conclude with the long awaited release of his first CD, The Forbidden Anthems.This first presentation of Joe's music to the CD-buying public contains 17 tracks: 14 songs and 3 guitar instrumentals, and features the participation of some terrific guest artists. One of these, Jim Earp, returned the compliment by enlisting Joe's services for the recording of his own instrumental guitar CD, Rosewood. Rosewood is the first record out of Joe's studio, Hope Recording, to be marketed overseas; and he is duly proud of the association.

Group Members It's just me, folks. Why do I have to be a "band?"Well, ok. When I play out as a duet Janet wouldhave to count as a "band member," right?

Instruments Acoustic and electric guitar, some piano and bass, percussion, synth and drum programming.

Albums The Forbidden Anthems, Freestyle.

Press Reviews "'The Forbidden Anthems' showcases beautiful guitarwork, engaging lyrics, and songs which feel fami-ar yet still go to unexpected places."--Lassen County Times"This CD is so rich that it is really impossibleto absorb in one sitting. The poetic vision istotally complete and utterly crystalline (the en-closed lyric sheet is essential!), and the ideasare of a depth seldom found in popular music. Itbecomes obvious after the first listen that thisartist is something special."--Jim Earp, guitarist/songwriter"This one is chock full of songs, 17 tracks, andthere ain't no fillers. This is worth seeking out.(...) I've only listened to this thing throughcheap headphones and tinny, tiny notebook speakers,but I love it already."--John Lord, musician (on the "Keaggy List")

Location Escondido, CA - USA

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