Search - Joel Zoss :: Joel Zoss

An old album worth finding

Cinnie Morgan | Philadelphia, PA USA | 03/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although the established music industry always seems to be overrun with "great!" new acts, some of them do deserve the notice that they garnered, even if not many people noticed. America produces about one such singer/songwriter a year and here he was -- a late entry into the 1975 sweepstakes, named Joel Zoss.

But he wasn't all that new, even then. His name had been on various album covers, when there was only vinyl, and 8-tracks had failed, and cassettes were on the way out, and most of the songs on this release were already several years old; yet, Zoss was definitely at the dawn of a fine recording career, it seemed. His songs were acoustic, slightly folkish pieces, polished well by their aging, with "Too Long at the Fair" (well-covered by Bonnie Raitt), just a better example of what this man could do.

And while that song is an accomplished bit of art that pretty well represents what Zoss was doing, it was not the only good track. It is not the best, either. What might qualify as such are "Sarah's Song" and "I Waited for You."

Zoss, who plays guitar as well as sings, was already expert at wedding euphonious lyrics to unaffected tunes. Peaceful, yet haunting, his love songs here are peerless. As plain and sweet as all the tracks are, they are not condescending or saccharine in the least. With this album, Joel Zoss should have been a strong contender for a spot at the top, in 1975. But the music business is a funny thing, and it didn't happen that way.

Fortunately, it's now 2008, and Joel Zoss has a new album called "Lila." So maybe we all get another chance. Maybe he's THAT good. Maybe it's possible to own BOTH albums. I don't know."

Rolling Stone raited this album with 5 stars!

Cinnie Morgan | 12/07/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"From Rolling Stone magazine:At his most effective, Joel Zoss seems to meditate on the haunting and fatalistic ambiguity of American folk music. An idiosyncratic and romantic singer/songwriter, he borrows from strength-a melody here, a phrase or two there-until the best of his work fuses the Jungian timelessness of a national dream with a quixotic personal vision so oblique and up-to-date it provokes all of the philosophical questions but none of the answers."I Gave My Love a Candle," "Too Long at the Fair," "Charlie's Friends" and "Sarah's Song" follow the heroic path of the spiritual gambler, the outcome of whose excessive quest is never in doubt. Zoss is a master at conveying cosmic doom-a melodic Montgomery Clift, if you will-and when he learns to control his musical and emotional repetitiveness, he could be an important artist. (RS 208)PAUL NELSON"