BLIND JOE THRIVES IN PHASE TWO OF HIS CAREER

HPR caught up with local musician and former “The Voice” contestant Blind Joe before his Fargo Lions Club benefit show at the Fargo Theatre last Friday. Although he lost “The Voice,” the experience propelled his career. He’s been touring the U.S. nonstop while also working with school assemblies and he even found time to record a new album titled “By the Fans, for the Fans.”

The album comes out on May 5 and features 12 tracks, including the three songs he performed on “The Voice.” Fans can preorder the album through Amazon and iTunes, while a physical copy can be ordered off his website at blindjoe.com.

High Plains Reader: So, you’ve had a lot going on since ‘The Voice.’

Blind Joe: It’s been quite the journey. It’s been crazy, man, but it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve had a lot of shows; you know, North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota. We did a seven-week East Coast/southern tour and that was a good time. Went to Atlanta in January and started recording the new record. Now we’ve got the preorder up on iTunes and Amazon, but the one we’re really trying to promote is iTunes because I would like to chart if possible. If that’s not enough, we’re doing school assemblies during the week that focus around perseverance and believing in yourself. So it’s cool being able to attempt to be a role model and an inspiration to the kids. It’s nonstop, man, but it’s a lot of fun.

HPR: This isn’t your first album, but probably your most important one. How did the album come to be? I know you had a GoFundMe campaign going for a while.

BJ: Yeah, we launched a GoFundMe campaign when my time on ‘The Voice’ was done and were fortunate enough to raise just under $7,000 towards the cost of the record and that was awesome. And then we did a couple shows here in Grand Rapids where I live and made some money off of that so we were able to put that to it too. That’s why we called the record ‘By the Fans, for the Fans’ because we wouldn’t have been able to do it if it wouldn’t have been for the fans’ support.

A lot of people think that ‘The Voice’ helped out or that Blake Shelton helped out and stuff like that and that’s really not the case. This is all the fans and me and my producer Rick Beato and his sidekick Ken Lanyon and a bunch of professional musicians that were cool enough to be a part of the record. Of course, we had to hire them but ...

This is really a record by the fans, for the fans. If you like real country music and my raw acoustic style then you’re going to like this record. We did six songs with the full band. Originally, I was just going to release that as an EP but I had so many people say, ‘Oh, man. What about the acoustic stuff? We love the Blind Joe raw kind of acoustic feel.’ So you know, you try to please everybody. And so I put six more songs on there; a few acoustic and a couple live tracks. It turned out really well, I think.

HPR: Aside from your new record, what other opportunities have you been given since your time on ‘The Voice’? I know you got signed with BWC Records.

BJ: I signed with them and they’re a very, very small independent label. They’re just getting started themselves so we’re kind of working together to build my career as well as build the label. Barb, who runs that, is an excellent, excellent person. She’s a wonderful lady, super sweet, and they’re all really good people so I’m excited to work with those guys and try to make this thing happen.

HPR: As you were talking about earlier, you’ve been touring quite a bit.

BJ: We’ve been on the road ever since ‘The Voice’ propelled everything into motion, we’ve been going nonstop. It used to be where I would have to scratch and kick and fight for every show I got. I was playing sometimes every weekend, most the time every other weekend; it just kind of depended. But I had a full-time job myself, my wife was working full time and now, thanks to ‘The Voice’ being such a wonderful launch pad, we’re both able to focus on this full time and really give it the attention it deserves.

It’s a dream come true for me, man, and I couldn’t do it without the fans, without people supporting me and I can’t thank everybody from Fargo, Moorhead and the surrounding areas, and especially here in Grand Rapids where I live too — support has just been outstanding. It’s really cool to go to different states around the country. You walk into a Wal-Mart or something and somebody’s like, ‘Hey, man. Aren’t you Blind Joe from ‘The Voice’?’ And it’s like, ‘Holy crap. We’re in Kentucky. How do you know that?’ You kind of forget that it’s a national thing. It’s really a dream come true, man. It’s pretty awesome.

HPR: I noticed you decided to stop selling any of your old albums online once this new one came out.

BJ: I did, yeah. We took them all offline, they’re not available at shows anymore and that had nothing to do with that I’m not proud of those records or anything like that. It’s just that a lot of those songs were bar songs. I played a lot of bars, and still do, but now that we’re doing a lot of the school assemblies and working with the kids and stuff like that, you know, it’s different now. Some of that stuff I don’t think I would want my kid to listen to it. Songs like ‘The Blind Joe Song’ or the Christmas song that I have out or had out ...

The goal is to make the music listenable to anybody no matter what age you are. There is still the drinking thing in some of the songs and maybe a couple people will say, ‘That’s a little risque. I don’t know if I want my kid listening to that,’ or whatever. But that’s their prerogative. They have every right to do that. I put songs on the record that I would let my kid listen to and I would let my kid listen to the whole record all the way through and not have a problem with it. This is a business and I want to try to reach every possible fan that I can. I think you have to. I still get a little bit of slack, you know. ‘What about the old stuff? What about the old stuff?’ people say. Things change and as you grow and you mature and you realize your fan base is widening, you have to accommodate that.

HPR: You are obviously a huge country fan. How’d you feel when Merle Haggard passed away?

BJ: Man, it was devastating. I never got the opportunity to see Merle live and I was planning on doing it this summer with my wife and that’ll never happen now. I’ve been a fan of Merle ever since I was a kid. My dad and my grandpa were huge Merle Haggard fans and in fact, one of the first tapes I ever got was Merle Haggard’s greatest hits. Songs like ‘Sing Me Back Home’ and ‘Mama Tried’ and ‘Okie From Muskogee,’ ‘I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink’ and ‘Workin’ Man Blues’; all that stuff, man. I grew up with that stuff.

It’s sad. It sucks that we lost another inspiration, really, American hero of country music. But, you know, it happens. People die. It’s sad but such is life. Hopefully, there’ll be a string of people looking to fill those shoes. And I’m one of them. I have nothing but the utmost respect for people like Merle Haggard and George Jones and Hank Williams. Just keep on keeping on.

HPR: Do you keep in touch with anyone from ‘The Voice’ these days?

BJ: No, no, I don’t. When I left ‘The Voice,’ Blake said that he’d give me a call. And who knows? That may still happen, you know, Blake’s a busy guy. He’s got doing ‘The Voice,’ he’s got tours, he’s got tons and tons of stuff on his plate. I can’t even imagine what his days are like. Maybe it’ll happen, maybe it won’t, but I’m the kind of person where I’m not gonna sit around and wait for that to happen. Gotta get out there and just try to do the best that I can to support myself and take care of my wife and that’s what we’re doing.