Real World Records

Come To Where I'm From

• by Joseph Arthur
• Real World Region: North America
• Jun 2000

The Real World label is best known as an outlet for treasured world music. But Akron, Ohio is as much a part of the world as Pakistan or Tibet or Africa and thus as fitting a home for Joseph Arthur as it is for label mates Yungchen Lhamo, Papa Wemba and Afro Celt Sound System.

Joseph has been plying his trade on the road over the last year, with residency tours in the Northeast and Northwest, as well as opening stints for Ben Harper and Gomez. And as his mesmerising stage presence suggests, Joseph's one-man band not only explains his live musical act, but also the solo creative process he applies to all kinds of art forms. Not content to limit himself to guitar, harmonica and sampling wizardry, Joseph is also a writer, sculptor and painter.

"I look better than I feel, and I don't look that good," Joseph once said before beginning a show. It's a quote that's not only revealing of his modest take on his own work, but also indicative of the countless hours spent composing and struggling to maintain the volume and quality of his output.

Joseph recently received a Grammy nomination for the Best Recording Package for his 1999 'Vacancy' EP, which he created and co-art-directed with designer Zachary Larner.

Clearly neither quality nor volume was an obstacle, as the stunning 'Come To Where I'm From' proves.

Reviews

...Joseph Arthur is clearly not your average singer-songwriter. His second album explores cavernous atmospherics, sawing cello arrangements, psychedelia and the odd squall of grunge. Beneath it all, though remains the clear sound of a man alone with a jumbo guitar, a notebook full of lyrics and a lot of pain. ..Arthur made his debut three years back; this record is far more accomplished, thanks in great part to the inventive settings conjured up by producer T-Bone Burnett, which switch easily from, for example, the swooning Byrds harmonies and full-on guitars of 'Chemical' to the sparse, dreamy sound of 'Invisible Hands'. His influences are plain enough - Dylan, Waits, Cobain - but by the end of the record, he sounds like nobody but himself; dark, lovelorn and clever.

Press review from: The Observer (UK)

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