Monday, November 23, 2009

ABOUT SACKJO22


SUSAN JOSEPH
aka SackJo22
sackjo22@gmail.com

Susan Joseph is a clear-voiced Los Angeles based singer/songwriter/poet who recently re-emerged artistically after a protracted hiatus spent raising a family. Writing with intelligence and sensitivity,. her influences are apparent — Joni Mitchell, The Roches, Emmylou Harris — but she is never derivative, showing an expansive musical and melodic vocabulary.


Susan’s first recording experience was to tell the story of her sweet sixteen on a spoken word album -- Voices of the Angels -- produced by Harvey Kubernick, featuring the voices of some of Los Angeles' preeminent poets and speakers at the time.


She was a founding member of The Beef Sisters (performing as Susan Ackerman), part of the burgeoning neo-folk, acoustic scene in Los Angeles during the late 1980's who offered up a unique funky/folky/acoustic/edgy sound centered around intelligent songwriting and vocal harmonies. They frequently played live, had recordings included on a couple of the legendary Radio Tokyo compilation albums, and released an EP. They also had one of their songs included in a Playboy soft porn video. Then they broke up.


After the break up of The Beef Sisters, Susan performed and recorded with her own band which was just getting off the ground when her first child arrived. As she really couldn't see herself playing a Hollywood nightclub on a Wednesday night at 11:00 p.m. when she had a little one waiting at home, she chose to take some time to focus her attention on her growing family. That brief hiatus turned into a 17 year deferment as the demands of her family took precedence over her artistic endeavors.


During that period, Susan was not completely inactive. She continued to write, and performed in an acoustic trio called Too Darn Hot singing originals and standards at various theaters and events around Los Angeles. She started recording rough demos and uploading them to her myspace page. During this period, she also emerged as an intermittent blogger. But her output was sporadic as her time and energy were focused on her family.


Then her kids became teenagers, she discovered ccMixter, and she emerged as SackJo22.


SackJo22’s first upload to ccMixter.org was March 31, 2009, and she quickly became an active participant on the site. Since that time, her voice has been remixed close to 200 times. Tracks featuring either her voice or her own remixes have been included in a number of videos, including the videos of video blogger Nando who invited her to create theme songs for several of his video series. Sackjo22’s music has also been included in various podcasts. She has been engaged in collaborative projects with other artists from all over the world. With Ciggi Burns (aka Moira Waugh), she created The Adventures of Sue and Mo series in which the exploits of a couple of righteous babes take on the world as memorialized in song and a blog. Briareus included his remixes of three of SackJo22’s songs on an album he released on Jamendo. @Nop's remix of SackJo22’s version of the Chanukah classic Sevivon is part of the "Peace of Winter" compilation album coordinated by Snowflake and recently released via itunes, TuneTrack and Jamendo as a benefit album in support of the people of Tibet. SackJo22 has a steadily growing fanbase at TheSixtyOne and Last.fm. As a proponent of sharing culture, Sackjo22 makes available her recordings so that she continues to find herself in unexpected places all over the world wide web.


SackJo22 also hosts The Mixin' Kitchen, a bi-weekly podcast featuring the work of ccmixter artists, which is the most popular podcast coming out of ccMixter.org. She conducted a written interview with DoKashiteru as part of ccmixer's "artist spotlight" series, and will likely do more of that in the future.


Presently, SackJo22 is working with Spinmeister who is producing a set of original songs to be released as a collection in 2010.


In addition, SackJo22 is currently involved as the musical director for an original theater piece called "Box, Window, Door" currently in development, with the initial workshop scheduled for early 2010, and the ultimate goal of performing the piece at REDCAT arts center affiliated with CalArts University and Walt Disney Hall by fall 2010.


The White Cube Remix Project is SackJo22’s most rewarding artistic effort to date affording her the opportunity to not only work closely with Gurdonark (an artist she admires greatly) to mobilize an entire, international musical community with the goal of creating an explosive musical experience that encompasses the qualities of her present orientation toward her work -- creating relationship through sharing and collaboration.


On-Line Presence

http://ccmixter.org/people/SackJo22
http://www.myspace.com/mrsjoseph39skitchen
http://www.mrsjosephskitchen.blogspot.com/
http://theadventuresofsueandmo.blogspot.com/
http://www.thesixtyone.com/SackJo22/
http://www.last.fm/music/SackJo22


Other Creative Acivities

Published an underground literary 'zine called "Letters of Dysfunktion"
Exhibited and sold original artwork via community exhibits and private commission
Belly danced semi-professionally as a troupe member, and solo artist appearing at festivals, night clubs, restaurants and private parties. Taught belly dance.
Blogger
Improv artist with The Hothouse Improvisational Theater

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