Joel Rafael Tours This Month With Jimmy LaFave

Los Angeles, CA (Top40 Charts/ Inside Recordings) - Southern California-based singer-songwriter Joel Rafael will tour this month on a bill that also includes Texas-based musician Jimmy LaFave. The Midwest dates kick off April 20 at the Blue Dome Diner in Tulsa, OK and includes shows at Knucklehead's Saloon in Kansas City, MO (4/21); CSPS/Legion Arts in Cedar Rapids, IA (4/22); and Fitzgerald's in Berwyn, IL. Rafael will also perform solo in Highland Park, IL on April 25.

Regarded as one of music's foremost interpreters of the work of American folk icon Woody Guthrie, Rafael will be a featured performer on Saturday night (July 17) at this summer's 2010 annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma, July 14 to 18. Rafael has appeared at the festival every year since its 1998 inception.

Rafael has released two compilations of Guthrie's songs, Woodeye: The Songs of Woody Guthrie, Volume 1 (2003), and Woodyboye: The Songs of Woody Guthrie, Volume 2 (2005). In its review of the latter, Rolling Stone wrote, "Don't miss the moving version of Guthrie's 'Stepstone,' which finds Rafael sharing vocal duties with Jackson Browne and another Guthrie admirer by the name of Arlo."

In 2009, independent label Inside Recordings reissued both in a special 2-CD set, THE SONGS OF WOODY GUTHRIE, VOL. 1 & 2. Several songs feature original music composed by Rafael for previously unpublished lyrics by Woody Guthrie, entrusted to him by Nora Guthrie (Woody's daughter and director of the Woody Guthrie Archives).

Rafael's most recent album of original material was 2008's Thirteen Stories High. Highlights include the stirring protest song "This Is My Country," featuring background vocals by David Crosby and Graham Nash.

Joel Rafael was the recipient of the Kerrville Folk Festival's 1995 "New Folk Emerging Songwriter Award." He is a member of the national touring cast of the celebrated Guthrie revue Ribbon Of Highway, Endless Skyway. He has performed with Jackson Browne, Ben Harper, John Lee Hooker, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Sheryl Crow and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
www.joelrafael.com

April tour dates with Jimmy LaFave
20 Blue Dome Diner Tulsa, OK
21 Knuckleheads Saloon Kansas City, MO
22 CSPS Cedar Rapids, IA
24 Fitzgerald's Berwyn, IL
25 House Concert (Joel Rafael only) Highland Park, IL