Joel Rafael
Escondido, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 1949 | AFM
Music
Press
‘America Come Home’
Joel Rafael (Inside Recordings)
★★★★
A respected folk artist in the vein of Woody Guthrie, Joel Rafael has crafted another winning album in “America Come Home.” Whether co-writing a tune with the late Guthrie (“Dance Around My Atom Fire”) or being joined by icons David Crosby and Graham Nash (title track), Rafael has delivered a thought-provoking — yet always entertaining — collection of 12 tunes.
There aren’t any real missteps to be found here, and Rafael is especially effective on “Dharma Bums,” “Indian Summer,” “I Can’t Feel Your Love,” “Within Your Graces” and “Racing and Chasing
the Sun.” “America Come Home” is Rafael’s eighth album. It’s also his best.
— Jeffrey Sisk - Daily News
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Over four decades Rafael has chronicled his life and the world around
him with songwriting rooted in folk tradition; and no influence is more
obvious in his work than that of Woody Guthrie. Joel composed music
for five sets of Guthrie lyrics given to him by Woody's daughter Nora,
and two of his co-writes with Guthrie appear in Every 100 Years - The Woody Guthrie song book (2012). "Dance Around My Atom Fire" (Guthrie/Rafael), the opening track of his recent release, America Come Home (July
2012), took top honors as the 9th Annual International Acoustic Music
Association's Best Folk Song of 2012. David Crosby and Graham Nash
contribute harmonies to the title track, "America Come Home."
Joel Rafael first
began performing in showcases and small clubs around Los Angeles, San
Diego and the Inland Empire in California. He formed a duo with San
Diego-based Rosie Flores in 1978, enjoying standing-room-only crowds
during their nine-month collaboration, and local promoters sought him as
an opener for national touring acts from Rick Danko to Emmy Lou Harris,
including John Lee Hooker, John Stewart, Laura Nyro, and Taj Majal. In
1981, Rafael toured the southwest with Jesse Colin Young, and released a
debut album, Dharma Bums.
The emergence of the seminal Joel Rafael Band
in 1994, coinciding with a period of FM radio programming freedom,
resulted in national airplay, a tour with Joan Baez, and regular
co-bookings with John Trudell. Rafael won Kerrville Folk Festival's
"New Folk Songwriter Award" in 1995 and he has been a featured performer
at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival every year since its inception in 1998.
Band Members
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