The story goes that Jo learned how to get out of her crib in order to put on a new stack of records. Jo's parents always had music going in their house on a small street called Thorpe Road in a suburb of Philadelphia. Mom and Dad both played guitar and sang, and Jo sang, too, a lot. Jo sang in choirs, musicals, on the school bus and in summer camp. She played the violin, the piano and the recorder, an instrument she is still fond of today.
Jo's musical life was heavily centered on her record player. At heart, she is a huge music fan. Her angels, in hard times, have been the soulful sounds of Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Wonder. In her years at University, Jo immersed herself in all sorts of music. She sang and played guitar in an acoustic duo with gal pal, Katie Lott. She sang in a traditional all-girl acapella group, the Ursa Minors, in a fusion band and a jazz combo. She took up classical singing consummating her studies in a four-hour concert of French, Italian and German arias as well as American jazz standards.
After Brown University, Jo left New England for the grunge sounds of Portland, Oregon, a town where she was to spend five glorious years. The week she arrived, she picked up a guitar and started gigging at the coffee shop, Common Grounds, where she sang cover tunes but soon progressed belting out a set of all original tunes. Slowly, but surely, Jo surrounded herself with wonderful musicians and created the band, Sweet Baby Onion. The band was made up of Dan Reid on drums, Sean Flora, on bass and back-up vocals and John Wyatt on lead guitar.
Jo and band recorded at Blue Dog Studios in Portland and Jo co-produced the record with the amazing Bruce Robertson. She had some heavy-hitters as guest performers: you can hear the guitar riffs of Maria Callahan from the Doris Daze; Tae Won Yu plays a mean guitar on "It's Not Because" and sings on "Four Years"; Adam Mishaga eloquently plays the cello on Mambo Mouth, and Mick Chegwidden slides some tasty notes on the first cut, Take Me Home. The 13 original tunes garnered favorable reviews. The Willamette Week said that Jo's voice "...cuts straight to the heart with a raw strength that Alanis can't muster". Sweet baby Onion began playing regularly live on Portland's alternative radio station, KBOO. Their big CD release party was at the Laurelthirst Pub.
In April of 1997, Jo left Portland for Hollywood, where she now resides. She continued studying the craft of songwriting. Jo has been collaborating with some brilliant songwriters. Along with her own compositions, she has collected a song catalog of over 100 songs with Apollo Music Group an independent publishing house. Through her collaboration with friend, Richard Alexander, some very personal and emotional material emerged. In his Wild Garden Recording studio in Ojai, California, Richard captured the purity of Jo's voice on a very expensive microphone. These songs can be found on CD Baby under Jo Alexis and Richard Alexander.
Jo also collaborated with Paul O'Connor, A.J. Washington, Stevie Blacke, Sean Friesen, and old friend, Sean Flora, who now has a burgeoning studio of his own called the Alberta Music Collection in Portland, Oregon.
Currently, Jo is performing a totally new record of pop songs she recorded with Producer, Jarrett Michaels of Freedom Music and Richard Alexander of Wild Garden Recordings. Check out her new CD available now on CD Baby: Jo Alexis "Connection".
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