Joel Mabus at the Grand River Folk Arts Society October 17, 2009

Joel Mabus has been entertaining us and surprising us with his virtuosity and versatility for 30 years. He has split his career in folk music between the traditional and the original. Split is perhaps not the proper word, because the old and the new intertwine in his music, whether he is singing an old ballad with a new interpretive twist or writing a new song with a 21st century perspective that sounds like it has been handed down from generations past.
Joel Mabus may be called a singer-songwriter, but he doesn't sound like one. He's the son of a 1930's old time fiddle champ and a banjo-pickin' farm girl. His performing career began in college during the Vietnam era, where he studied anthropology and literature by day and played coffeehouses by night. One critic writes, Joel Mabus knows his way around the English language and American culture just as well as he knows his way around a fretboard. Born in 1953 in the southern Illinois town of Belleville, Joel has recorded 19 solo albums of original and traditional music since his recording career started in 1978. The Banjo Monologues, Joel's unique blend of old-time banjo and storytelling, placed #6 in the Folk Radio charts for 2007. He placed #4 in the same charts for 2008 with his latest, Retold -- some of his original songs revisited. A one-off in the folk world, Mabus defies any easy pigeon-hole. His palette ranges from mountain banjo to jazz guitar -- from sensitive introspection to wicked satire. He's both picker & poet, and from coast to coast over the past 30 years this Midwesterner has brought audiences to their feet, wanting more.
http://joelmabus.com/

Official Website: http://www.grfolkarts.org