Baladista
Joel Rafael
Inside Recordings
Release Date: April 14, 2015
Review Date: March 20, 2015

Boomerocity is pleased to premier the latest video from the latest album by critically acclaimed, California songwriter and seminal folk artist Joel Rafael. Joel will release his ninth album, Baladista, on April 14 (April 10 International) on Inside Recordings. Inside Recordings, a label created by Jackson Browne and his management team, is distributed worldwide by Alternative Distribution Alliance. 

The album’s first single and video, “Old Portland Town” (here), will resonate with the first wave of  baby boomers and sets the tone for the entire, heartfelt album. The song tells the tale of Rafael’s experience being arrested in Portland as part of a city-wide sweep of the entire underground. He had migrated there from Los Angeles with a group of outlaws, artists, writers and mystics in an effort to avoid the impending military draft. 

However, the second single/video, is, by far, Boomerocity’s favorite and we’re exclusively featuring it TODAY for the entire world to hear and see. The song is is “Love’s First Lesson,” a co-write with Eagles songwriter Jack Tempchin. The two have been friends since the 1970s when they met while performing at the Blue Ridge Guitar Shop in Encinitas. 

Joel told Boomerocity, “Jack Tempchin called me up one night and asked me to come over to his place so we could write the epic song of the sixties.  What we learned is that when you start writing a song you never know what you’ll end up with, and love’s first lesson is a broken heart."

The rest of the album is equally introspective and will tug at the listener’s heart and memories as it relates to Joel’s lyrics. Baladista is definitely the must have Americana album of 2015.

Baladista was recorded and mixed by Joel Rafael at his Bravebear Ranch in North San Diego County, California.  “The album is homegrown in the truest sense,” says Rafael. “I used a simple stripped down approach and recorded the whole thing at home, here in my own studio.”  Joining him on the album are Greg Leisz, James “Hutch” Hutchinson, John Inmon and Terry “Buffalo” Ware.

Joel Rafael has been writing and performing since 1974 and over the past decades has released a stunning collection of eight Americana albums, including a 2CD Woody Guthrie collection with five Guthrie/Rafael co-writes. As a solo performer and with his band, he opened shows throughout the southwestern United States for artists including Crosby, Stills and Nash, Sheryl Crow, Laura Nyro, Joan Baez, Taj Mahal, Iris DeMent, Emmylou Harris, and John Lee Hooker.

Keep up with the latest on Joel at www.joelrafael.com.