Roughly 15 years ago, two freshmen at Ithaca College were eager to do anything except study, so they began melding one’s poetry with the other’s guitar work.
All these years later, would-be poet/songwriter Andy Campolieto and guitarist Ben Lee are the main figures in the Americana band Jo Henley, whose second full-length album “Inside Out” was released Feb. 16.
Jo Henley – the full five-piece band – appears Saturday night at Bridgewater’s Off the Common Coffeehouse before leaving on a tour of the South.
The new album is one of the year’s best, a stripped-down rootsy journey through lost loves and struggling people seeking connection and meaning. It was recorded in Scituate’s Noise in the Attic studio, with Rob Loyot producing, and later mixed at 37 Foot Productions in Rockland.
Campolieto and Lee’s partnership has gone through several transformations, from what the former called his “bad poetry,” to a garage-rock type college band, to gradually finding their own voice as twangy rockers. Some astute critics have already compared Jo Henley to The Band, and it’s a reference they appreciate.
“I had always wanted to write songs, and front a band,” Campolieto admitted. “After Ben and I began performing, I decided I felt silly just standing there singing so I learned how to play guitar myself. Since we became Jo Henley in 2006, I guess we’ve been in that Americana vein, like Girls Guns and Glory. We try to play the South a lot because they are so much more used to hearing that country-style, roots music. Down South they appreciate the fact we don’t have quite the twang of some other bands – we are more folk or rock. Lots of people just automatically don’t like country music, but they will like us, so we try to continue to bridge that gap. I think our obvious influences are The Band, Neil Young, the Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne and The Eagles, people whose music had pieces of folk, rock, country and bluegrass all mixed in.”
“The band name comes from no specific person,” Campolieto added. “It’s just a takeoff on both our middle names. We were playing acoustic dates where everyone was billed by their name, mostly solo acts, and then we’d be there as Ben and Andy, which didn’t sound too cool. So we just wanted to devise a single band name.”
Campolieto’s songwriting is remarkable for its storytelling detail, each tune a cinematic vignette One song that is a departure of sorts is the album’s opener, “The Great Depression,” wherein the narrator allows as how he didn’t have money anyway, so the national economy won’t change his situation too much, its jaunty melody adding to its c’est la vie tone.
“I always joke that I prefer to stay away from songs like that, because you can date yourself, and by the time the album comes out they can be outdated,” Campolieto said. “Unfortunately, that one’s theme is sticking around.”
The Off the Common Coffeehouse is at 50 School St. in Bridgewater. All shows begin at 8 p.m. and tickets are always $13. Call 508-697-5425 for more information.
WANT TO GO?
WHO: Jo Henley
WHERE: Off the Common Coffeehouse, 50 School St., Bridgewater
WHEN: Saturday night at 8
TICKETS: $13; call 508-697-5425 for more info
