Artist description Legend has it that Jo first learned to crawl out of her crib to change the albums on her record player. Today, she is making her own albums. Her latest project, a full-length pop CD, titled Connection reaches you (and 500 college radio stations) this winter. Compared by critics to Sarah McLachlan, Jo’s voice has been described as smooth, sweet, and captivating. Jo Alexis will play live at Genghis Cohen, January 11, 2003. For reviews, photos and concert updates, see http://www.girlpopmusic.com.

Music Style Pop

Musical Influences Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt

Similar Artists Sarah McLachlan, Sinead O'Connor

Instruments Guitar, Bass, Dobro, and Lap Steel

Albums Test Your Love, Sweet Baby Onion, Connection

Press Reviews .“Terror on the Colorado- Real-life tragedy and the long road to recovery for musician Jo Bronstein (aka Jo Alexis): Presenting - The Jo Alexis Story.” From Anodyne Magazine. By Scott D. Lewis Jo Bronstein’s story has all the makings of a TV movie-of-the-week. “It really does,” concurs the amiable, patient 27-year-old with sight smile, a mixture of wonder and disbelief in her calm blue eyes. “People have asked if I’m going to sell my story…” The drama would begin in Philadelphia, where Bronstein was born and raised. Cut to Brown University, where she studied classical, jazz and improvisational voice. She took up guitar while a junior. “ Because I was in a duo with another woman and we needed to accompany ourselves somehow. It was kind of one chord here and one chord there, it was pretty vague. I never thought, ‘One day I’ll stop singing and just play guitar. ‘It was always, ‘I need to support this voice and I want to be able to write songs.’ And besides, it’s a lot harder to try and carry a piano around,” she muses through warm laughter. A graduate, our sympathetic character takes the lead of a college friend, and heads to Portland where she immediately begins performing. “Within a week I was doing open-mic night. Then I started regularly performing at coffee shops. I would have a monthly gig where I would really try to get people to come. I started playing around more and got a drummer [Dan Reid] after my second year of being here.” Desiring a name that conveyed her subject matter and appreciation of “the type of beauty hat can make you cry,” the duo was christened Sweet ‘n’ Low. When bassist Sean Flora entered the mix (and it was discovered that rap/hip-hop group had beaten them to the trademark), Sweet Baby Onion sprouted up. The trio built a following and a reputation for churning out mesmerizing, progressive folk. And there was that voice, Bronstein’s well-tempered, nimble cords carry a wealth of emotion, experience, and character; they go down as smoothly as warm honey. In the Summer of ’95, Sweet Baby Onion went into Blue dog Studios and came out with an alternately haunting, heartbreaking, and playful baker’s-dozen tunes that introduced a talented, mature musical powerhouse. Bronstein was rightfully optimistic; all the pieces were coming together, including the addition of guitarist john Wyatt, who filled out the live sound. Having taught children music all year in addition to putting out her debut, our star is in need of a vacation. One week after Sweet Baby Onion’s CD release party Bronstein was living out a long-time dream. “I was really psyched. I’d always wanted to go rafting sown the Colorado River.” Endorphins pumping, tragedy strikes. “On the first day of the trip, I got knocked off the boat by a bog rapid, pulled under by the current, and chopped up by the boat’s propeller. I thought that I was going to drown, “ she details with a healthy sense of distance. “I remember thinking, ‘I’m under the boat…I haven’t had a breath in a long time…Uh Oh.” When she came up, Bronstein executed a standard emergency procedure, pulling down on the front of her lifejacket to raise the jacket’s back and support her head. “It was then that I noticed that my arm was basically gone,” she continues. “It was dangling on by a tendon. I couldn’t move my [left] arm or [right] leg at all. I was sending signals to them and they just wouldn’t go. That was the worst feeling that I’ve ever had. I thought,’ I’m going to lose my arm and then I’m going to die.’” But our hero is strong. “They got me out of the water within a few minutes. I was screaming. I don’t remember screaming, I remember talking very calmly,” she observes with a light laugh...”I remember saying’Please, don’t lose my arm’ but apparently is was like, ‘DON’T LOSE MY ARM!!!’ Luckily, the water was a bout 50 degrees so I didn’t lose a lot of blood. They wrapped my up accordingly and put me back in the boat. Then we rode downstream to a spot where a helicopter could pick me up. I stayed on the boat, on my back for the next 16 hours. They had to keep me up all night, so that I would not go into a coma. Help finally arrived at about 7:30 in the morning. I was flown to a hospital, had surgery and spend about a week there. My elbow was broken in four places and nerves were cut. My knee was also dislocated, chopped-up and broken.” Returned to the comfort her southeast Portland home, Bronstein continues down recovery’s road. “I spent about five hours or more a day working on my arm,” she explains. “Between the nerve regeneration, the strengthening and stretch work, it pretty much consumes my life, “she states with resolve. “I have been trying to take more time to write more…to feel. I forgot to do those types of things for a while.” Our movie’s gripping, inspirational conclusion would surely be the scene of Bronstein’s painfully limping across Key Largo’s stage to take her place behind the mic as she and her band enthrall an overflowing NXNW crowd. This could be followed by flashes of her eminent rise to the top and culminate with …what the hell…her graciously accepting her Grammy after her first-ever appearance singing and playing guitar. But, of course, real life is not fit to be televised. Recovering from (and growing through) trauma does not adhere to time constraints, tidy ends or convenience. Though the official prognosis is against her where guitar is concerned, the real-life inspiration of Jo Bronstein puts no limits on the story yet to unfold. “Nothing is written in ink. I’m not really sure where the doctors are wrong and where they are right…My job is to disprove them.” Go Jo. Anodyne

Additional Info To sample Sweet Baby Onion CD, click http://cdbaby.com/sbonion. To sample Connection, the 2003 release, clcik http://www.cdbaby.com/joalexis

Location West Hollywood, CA - 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).