Joe Stickley’s Blue Print; Ptarmigan

Performing Live at the Gramohone

Dec 26, 2009 Rock

Joe Stickley’s Blue Print; Ptarmigan

In his third album, Smoke Leaves Town, Joe Stickley has a story to tell. The album starts easy, like you’ve know each other for years, even if this is your fist listen. It is intimate, just Joe and his guitar—given a sense of motion with steady snare taps underneath. By the fourth track, “Sittin by the Fire,” Stickley has welcomed you into a lively jam session with the whole family. You can feel the warmth radiate, as if you’ve been home all along. The arc of the album continues with a strong sense of storytelling as therapy, as the fire turns to embers, moving into reflective songs like “How’s It By You.” Written as a lament for Woody Guthrie, whose daughter was lost in a tragic fire, the song captures the curiosity and comfort of love in a time of grief. Perhaps that is Stickley’s strongest suit – his ability to capture the depth of intensity in the very raw struggles of life without losing a sense of hope. Stickley eases the pain of these stories with songs like the surgery sweet lullaby, “La La Yee,” featuring Springfield’s twang beauty, Cindy Woolf.
Stickley channels a rare sense of selflessness and genuine connection in song. He knows where he’s from, as the imagery of Missouri’s rivers and sycamore trees weave the whole album together in an intimate and amiable conversation about life and love in Midwestern America. As the album closes, it’s just you and Joe again, but something within you has been soothed by the pure sound and profound authenticity found only in masterful fold music. – Nelda Kerr