Enter to Win Free Tickets for Joe Purdy at Mercy Lounge on Monday (6/25)

When I first got the call to pen a guest write-up on Joe Purdy, my immediate reaction was an excited (no, thrilled) YES.  Not because I had a weekend full of free time or any underlying desire to try my hand at being a writer of any kind, but because I couldn’t think of a more perfect person than myself to write about what it is that makes Purdy such a top-notch artist.  It was no fluke that Matt (No Country’s mastermind) thought of me for this particular article, I had just gushed to him only days before at Eastland Cafe about having received tickets to this show as my “reward” for running East Nashville Underground so successfully alongside my fiance last season.  These tickets were my prize from him – and they were the perfect choice, because I would have bought them anyway and he knew it.  Purdy comes through town once a year, and only once a year, and I typically buy tickets THE day I receive the email that he’s scored his Nashville date.

To jump right in, I think sometimes it can be somewhat perplexing to describe an artist in the folk/Americana genre without making them all sound the same (“mountain man guitar-plucker”, “Appalachian vibe”, heck, even just “bearded”, in reference to his foot-long beard, or, “as though he emerged from either a cabin in the high woods or somewhere in East Nashville” …and since we’re all so seemingly sensitive to the perception of East Nasty these days – don’t get me wrong, Eastside – I’m Team East with 3 East Nashville-based businesses of my own – so, there).  Getting back to Purdy, as much as I was looking forward to writing this article and knew I had an abundance to say about why I’m a big fan, I felt completely stumped – or maybe, stunted was the word.  Here was this guy who’d inspired me to buy 99 of his singles in one single day, a guy from whom I’ve actually ordered a t-shirt, joined the mailing list, and purchased tickets to every local show he even thinks of playing, yet, this was a pressure out of a desire to represent him well.  I’m not a critic here, I’m a fan.

You see, my appreciation for Purdy is two-fold.  I’m a rock music publicist, so, obviously, I love music enough to have built a career around it for myself from the ground up – but, almost as much as I love Purdy’s music, I have a deep respect for the way he so adamantly manages his career. The first time I’d ever heard Purdy, in late 2008, it was due to a stellar song placement (“Can’t Get It Right Today”) in a commercial for the Kia Spectra – and thank goodness for Shazam, because now I could begin my research. Research led me to Purdy’s website, where it’s stated “Joe is an independent musician. His records are self-released and he likes it that way.”  (Mad respect.)  He does everything right from a business perspective, in my book.  He gives his fan club folks priority on purchases, he inspires immediate ticket purchases for tours being that he only comes through once a year (if you’re lucky), he’ll never sell out to the machine in this industry and he and his camp plainly state it (which is bold, and I like it), he consistently releases albums, has a natural/substantial presence on social media,  and somehow manages to both maintain a mystery and seem grounded yet approachable.  This is hardly touching on the fact that he is a master of song placements. Remember that show Lost you all loved? – yeah – that’s his theme song.  Grey’s Anatomy? – check – and multiple times. Primetime show House, and also, Purdy’s “Wash Away” is currently featured in the Dawn Wildlife TV spot. I can only assume that this is how Purdy is able to take his path the way he wants to, and for that, I can only hope that I can instill in my own clients to take notes from this superior example of the insistence for independence.

My favorite Purdy song?  “You Can Tell Georgia“, off his 2006 album by the same name.  I won’t try to describe the song because it’s one of my favorite “car-activities” to make my friends listen and see what they think it’s about for themselves, but only Purdy could sing a line like “If I see him around, honey I’m gonna knock him down” and make it sound both so masculine and beautifully emotional at the same time. Take that, Georgia.

You should also check out “Carnival on High” – a beautifully-recorded and touching tribute to Danny Federici, an icon in American music. He was most known for being the organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band for the past 38 years.  Danny lost his battle to melanoma on April 17th, 2008, and leading up to that day, Joe, a friend of the family, played for Danny every night until he passed. This is the song Joe wrote for him and played at his funeral.

Only the June 12-29 shows on this tour (That’s us, Nashville) does Purdy play with a full band,  The Giving Tree Band!  Joe and the boys met up in January 2012 to play The Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival.  After only one rehearsal together the 8 piece band took the stage and had what was rumored to be one of the stand out sets of the entire festival.  The Giving Tree Band will serve as both Purdy’s supporting and backing band, so make sure you get to the show early to catch their own opening set.