London Troubador

In the beginning it was just me. Travelling into the vast yet welcoming city with just my guitar and a notebook of daydreams. Learning about the city, people, myself. There were gigs, jams, buses, tubes, MySpace pages and (thankfully long-forgotten) CDs. 

Too shy, or circumspect, to use my own name I travelled under Stolen Car. Stolen Car became a duo with Basia Bartz on violin and then, incredibly, a fully-formed band. We had Ben Phillips on guitar, Aaron Griffiths on bass, Oli Leonard on skins. Backing vocalists came and went like Spinal Tap drummers. We made a charmingly shuffling, folky noise. People listened. 

We made a couple of recordings in a real recording studio. (WE HAD MADE IT !!!!)  They came out not too bad. In The Morning still ranks as one of my favourite songs. 

​We were on our way. 

It's All In The Game

When you're working alone that shapes the sound. If a song doesn't work with just an acoustic guitar then it's no use to you at that moment. A band lets you expand your vision and your sound.  

Dee McGruddy joined us on vocals and Leon Maitreya (perhaps his real name) came in on guitar. We were now officially a PROPER ROCK AND ROLL BAND !!!   We made lots of noise. We aimed big. The songs were going big. I did some of my best writing and we had an album that was going to make you listen. 

Without the budget for a studio recording (studios? The Beatles never needed them anyway....did they?) I first decided to record the album myself (a bad idea) and then proceeded to mix it myself (a very bad idea). Predictably the results were.... 'underwhelming' (it turns out they have sound engineers for a reason). The record was a minor disaster and not the success that it deserved to be.   
 
Thankfully, the songs have now been rescued from the vaults and remixed by Justin Whittingham (Anything Goes). They finally do justice to what should have been a fantastic album. And I've learned my lesson. 

All In The Game re-release in 2021. 

Anything Goes

Bands don't last. Particularly if they're not successful. We weren't (that) young anymore. Life had begun to happen. To us. Around us. It's the same old story. Jimmy quit, Jodi got married. And I'd run out of time.

As the group gradually disbanded the moment had come, a decade after those first stumbled steps into gigs and recordings, to use my own name.

Anything Goes is the first Joe Card album. It features Stolen Car musicians, it features new musicians. It has two harmonica players!!  I love the songwriting and the variety of sounds and styles on the record; it's the most adventurous sonic palette yet. I really enjoy the world that the album creates, the cast of characters and their stories. ​

​Here's to the future.