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Joel Mabus has split his long career in folk music between the traditional and the original. Split is perhaps not the proper word, because the old and the new intertwine in his music, whether he is singing an old ballad with a new interpretive twist or writing a new song with a 21st century perspective that sounds like it has been handed down from generations past.

Where is he from? He was born and raised in a working-class family in a modest Southern Illinois town, about 105 miles southeast of Mark Twain, 190 miles northwest of Bill Monroe, 110 miles southwest of Burl Ives and just over the river and up the hill from Scott Joplin.

His great-grandfather Louis Charles Lee was an Illinois farmhouse fiddler of the 19th century. Most of the following generations were farmhouse musicians too. When Joel's mother and father came of age in the Great Depression, they took their old-time music on the road as professional entertainers, barnstorming the Midwest with road shows for Prairie Farmer, the parent company of the WLS Barn Dance, the progenitor of the Grand Ole Opry.

This pedigree was not lost on Joel as a child. When his schoolmates were grooving to the Beach Boys and the Monkeys, he was drawn to the tunes of the Carter Family, Bill Monroe and Jimmie Rodgers. He also absorbed the blues and spiritual music that is thick in his native Southern Illinois along the Mississippi River.

His family was thrown into poverty after his father's untimely death in 1955.  But Joel did well in school and attended university in Michigan (at MSU on a national merit scholarship), where he studied anthropology by day and learned the business of being a professional musician by night. Interests grew beyond bluegrass & old time stringband music, and Joel studied delta blues, western swing, and even Celtic dance music long before it was the fad. He also began to write songs.

After journeyman's work in several local bluegrass and string bands, Joel made his first record for a Michigan label in 1977 with mandolin legend Frank Wakefield guesting. Three years later he signed with Flying Fish Records for a two-record deal. In 1986 he was one of the first established folksingers to start his own independent label, even before the advent of the home studio and compact disc, which make the practice so common today.
While he is known to many as a songwriter, having penned several songs familiar to the folk crowd ("Touch a Name On the Wall," "The Druggist," and "The Duct Tape Blues" are three that have been covered by many and published in the pages of Singout Magazine), he is also a fixture on the traditional scene as a guitarist, old-time banjoist, singer and fiddler. 

He has taught at Augusta Heritage, Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, and fiddled at countless dance camps. (His fiddle tune, "The Blue Jig" has become a modern contradance standard on three continents and has been recorded countless times by dance bands.)
Subsequent to his instrumental guitar release in 2005, "Parlor Guitar," Joel was asked by Hal Leonard Publishing to write transcriptions from that CD for publication. The book, Parlor Guitar, is now available worldwide for guitarists to learn Joel's arrangements of these early 20th century classics.

Joel was also among the first wave to join the North American Folk Music & Dance Alliance (now called "Folk Alliance International") in 1990, and showcased officially at the 1991 international conference in Chicago, where his short set was given two standing ovations. Top agent David Tamulevich wrote, "It was one of the most memorable and remarkable sets I have ever had the pleasure of seeing." Mabus has made 20 solo albums in his recording career - most of them still available. Recent standouts are "The Banjo Monologues" in 2007, a unique blend of old-time banjo and storytelling, and "Retold" in 2008, new versions of 12 of his vintage original songs.

His latest songwriting release was 2009's "No Worries Now…" - his first in a decade of all-new originals. Joining Joel on upright bass is Michigan music legend, Frank Youngman, who also played on Joel's first album back in 1977.

For 2011, comes "American Anonymous," a pared-back collection of traditional American folk songs, collected and adapted over the years by Joel. He sings and plays guitar & banjo, and for the first time on record, autoharp. 

Joel Mabus has toured widely and makes his living at music, though he is - like most professional folk musicians in the 21st century - flying under the radar of American pop culture. Whether you label him folk, Americana, or a singer-songwriter, Mabus remains a one-off, walking that lonesome valley, making and marking his way as a working artist outside the confining walls of the usual music business.

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Joel Mabus Discography

AMERICAN ANONYMOUS — 2011 (Fossil Records 2111)

NO WORRIES NOW... — 2009 (Fossil Records 2009)

THE JOEL MABUS OMNIBUS — 2008 (Fossil Records 1908)
        (a compilation drawing from Firelake, Fossil 390 & Short Stories, Fossil 592)

RETOLD — 2008 (Fossil Records 1808)

THE BANJO MONOLOGUES — 2007 (Fossil Records 1707)

PARLOR GUITAR — 2005 (Fossil Records 1605)

GOLDEN WILLOW TREE — 2004 (Fossil Records 1504)

THUMB THUMP  — 2002 (Fossil Records 1402)

SIX OF ONE — 2001 (Fossil Records 1301)

HOW LIKE THE HOLLY — 1999 (Fossil Records 1299)

TOP DRAWER STRING BAND — 1999 (Fossil Records 1199)

RHYME SCHEMES —1997 (Fossil Records 1097)

WESTERN PASSAGE  — 1996 (Fossil Records 996) 

PROMISED LAND — 1994 (Fossil Records 894)

FLATPICK & CLAWHAMMER  —   1993 (Fossil Records 793)
      (a combination of two tape releases: CLAWHAMMER, Fossil 491C & FLATPICK Fossil 693C)

SHORT STORIES  — 1992 (Fossil Records 592)

FIRELAKE — 1990  (Fossil Records 390)

THE NAKED TRUTH  — 1988 (Fossil Records 288) 

FORTUNES  — 1987 (Fossil Records 187) 

FAIRIES & FOOLS — 1983 (Flying Fish LP 296)  (out of print)

SETTING THE WOODS ON FIRE  — 1980 (Flying Fish LP 235) (out of print)

GRASSROOTS — 1978 (Grand River Records 003)  
            Debut LP featuring Frank Wakefield  (out of print)

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JOEL HAS PLAYED SOME OF the top festivals:

THE ANN ARBOR FOLK FESTIVAL  - Ann Arbor, MI 

BIG MUDDY FOLK FESTIVAL - Boonville, MO

THE BOSTON FOLK FESTIVAL - Boston, MA

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY FOLK FESTIVAL – Burlington, VT

CTMS SUMMER SOLSTICE FESTIVAL - Los Angeles, CA

KENT STATE FOLK FESTIVAL - Kent, OH   

KERRVILLE FOLK FESTIVAL - Kerrville, TX 

LIVE OAK MUSIC FESTIVAL - Santa Barbara, CA 

MARIPOSA FOLK FESTIVAL - Barrie, Ontario 

THE MIDWINTER SINGING FESTIVAL - East Lansing, MI 

OLD SONGS FESTIVAL - Altamont, NY

THE PHILADELPHIA FOLK FESTIVAL - Schwenksville, PA 

SAN DIEGO FOLK HERITAGE  - San Diego, CA   

STRAWBERRY MUSIC FESTIVAL - Yosemite, CA 

SUMMERFEST - New Bedford, MA

SUMMERFOLK - Owen Sound, Ontario 

VANCOUVER FOLK FESTIVAL -Vancouver, BC    

THE WALNUT VALLEY FESTIVAL - Winfield, KS 

WHEATLAND MUSIC FESTIVAL - Remus, MI 

WINNIPEG FOLK FESTIVAL - Winnipeg, Manitoba 

& folk clubs / concert series:

THE ARK – Ann Arbor, MI 

CANAL STREET – Dayton, OH 

THE CHERRY TREE – Philadelphia, PA

THE COFFEEHOUSE EXTEMPORE` – Minneapolis, MN 

DOWN HOME – Johnson City, TN  

DOWN EAST FOLK ARTS - Beaufort, NC

THE FOCAL POINT  – St. Louis, MO 

FOLKSTAGE - Chicago, IL 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE – Berkeley, CA 

FOX VALLEY FOLK – Aurora, IL 

GODFREY DANIELS – Bethlehem, PA 

THE IRON HORSE – Northampton, MA

KENTUCKY ACOUSTIC GUITAR MASTERS - Louisville, KY 

OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC - Chicago, IL

PASSIM – Cambridge, MA 

PORTLAND FOLK SOCIETY - Portland, OR

SEATTLE FOLK SOCIETY - Seattle, Wa

TEN POUND FIDDLE – E. Lansing, MI

& music camps:

AUGUSTA HERITAGE - WV

PUGET SOUND GUITAR WORKSHOP - WA 

CALIFORNIA COAST MUSIC CAMP - CA

SUMMER ACOUSTIC MUSIC WEEK - NH

MARYLAND BANJO ACADEMY - MD

MIDWEST BANJO CAMP - MI

STRINGALONG WEEKEND - WI

LAMB'S SONGWRITER RETREAT - MI

FOLK COLLEGE - PA

MICHIGAN DANCE HERITAGE - MI

  
 & nationally syndicated radio:

A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION

THE FOLK SAMPLER (theme song)

RIVER CITY FOLK

OUR FRONT PORCH

RURAL ROUTE 3

DOCTOR DEMENTO

FLEAMARKET

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Photo Credits

© 2001 - 2010 Joel Mabus
Last revised: May 30, 2011 .