About |  |
Joni Bishop's introduction to the world of music began when she got her first guitar at age 9 and discovered the folk/ roots music of singers like Mississippi John Hurt. & Elizabeth Cotton. Not only did the music captivate her, but the faces on the LP jackets as well. It was then that she began to develop a love for both music & art and to discover her own gifts: for writing songs, singing, playing finger-style guitar, and for sketching pencil portraits of the musicians she loved to listen to.
Since those early days, Joni's career as a singer-songwriter has become well established on the American folk music scene. She has toured extensively throughout the US and in Europe. Her distinctive songwriting-vocal-guitar style won her recognition in many noted song festivals here and abroad and landed her a staff-writing deal with Galleon Music Publishing Co. in Los Angeles before arriving in Nashville in 1989. She was a New Folk winner in the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, has recorded for CBS Records, BWE Records and released 5 CDs on her own independent label Polestar Records. Joni's songs have been recorded by other artists as well, among them country singer Crystal Gayle, pop group 3T, Australian country artist Shanly Dell and numerous folk artists and bluegrass groups and her music continues to receive airplay around the country on Americana, college & public radio.
As a visual artist, Joni had her first solo art show, "Roots, Rhythm & Gospel", in Nashville in 1998, where she exhibited over 40 of her folk-art Jazz/Blues/Gospel portraits of some of her most beloved subjects: the musicians and singers whose music has influenced, uplifted and inspired her through the years - Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Rev. Gary Davis, and the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, to name a few. Her work has been shown throughout the Southeast United States in conjunction with her concert tours in places like New Orleans, Memphis & Washington DC.. Joni is based in Nashville where she continues to write music, record and paint. Having just completed her 5th CD Steal Away Home, a folk-gospel CD that includes her art illustrations, Joni is currently busy working on a multi-media theatre piece that will incorporate elements of art, music & film...... |
