Joe Purdy

I hate to admit this but if it wasn't for the TV, I would never have found Joe Purdy's music. As a selp-published artist he's been relying on word of mouth and so far that hadn't reached me yet. What did reach me was a rather silly Kia Spectra commercial with a fun little upbeat song to go along with it.

I bought the song off iTunes but never really looked farther into Joe's music. I'm not sure why that is though. The song from the commercial, "Can't Get it Right Today" quickly became one of my favorite songs. I was surprised to find out that it was not the silly, ditty that I expected and was instead a very moving song. This is a beautifully sad song that somehow made me happy and sad at the same time. It hit me deeply, and I found myself singing it constantly. I've always loved folk music and this was some of the best I've ever heard. So why I didn't go find more of his music, I will never know.

One afternoon while sitting listening to Pandora.com, a song called "Whiskey and Fish" came on. I tapped my feet and bounced along to the song and then immediately clicked over to see who did the song. Joe Purdy again. And then I saw the new Dawn advertisement with his soulful "Wash Away". And I went out looking for the rest. Joe by the way is no stranger to music for television. Wash Away became a theme song for the series Lost, and Greys Anatomy has used some of his stuff. But since I've never seen a single episode of either, it took me two commercials and Pandora to spark me.

Joe has published 10 albums in the last 8 years. All self-published and all amazingly good. I read in an interview that he only expected to live to 27 and wanted to make sure he had 10 albums produced by then. His self-publishing has the downside of not offering a ton of marketing but also gives him a lot freedom with both writing and releasing his music. He gives people the chance to listen to all of his songs on his website and you can buy them directly from him or link to iTunes or Amazon. As I've gotten money to spend on music I've been buying up his albums. And so far have not found one that I didn't love. It took me a long time to find Joe but he has quickly become my favorite singer/songwriter. It's kind of sad to say that it took the television for me to find a new singer, but I'm willing to admit it, if it helps me get the word out about his fantastic music.