Joe Colombo

He's Swiss and he's magical. In the European and United States blues and rock scene, Joe Colombo's slide technique and his special custom electric resonator guitar set a style that is his alone. Shifting from the sonorities of electric rock-blues to the acoustic sensivity of Delta-blues, Joe ? who was born and grew up in Italian speaking Locarno ? builds a sound at once precise as a fine watch and full of intuitive openings.

Joe Colombo began playing guitar when he was twelve, listening to Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Johnny Winter. His slide technique draws on Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Son House and Bukka White.

Joe's first album, Natural Born Slider, came out in 2002. It was all slide guitar and nearly all instrumental. Acclaimed by the musical press, it became widely popular in Switzerland and Italy. That same year the readers of ?Buscadero Magazine? voted him one of the revelations of the year and one of the best guitarists.

In 2003 and 2004, working with artists like Robben Ford, Steve Lukather, Larry Coryell and Hiram Bullock, Joe made two internationally distribuited albums in honor of Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Crossing, A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix Vol. 1 and Gypsy Blood, A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2.

Joes spent most of 2005 and 2006 in the United States where he teamed up from time to time with singer Terry Evans (Ry Cooder's vocalist) performing not only in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but, in a wide swinging tour, in Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Nashville, New Orleans and New York, finishing off back in Europe in Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark, Holland. Austria and Hungary, racking up more than 200 concerts over all.

Back home in 2007, Joe launched his own band and, from 2008, has thay've been developing his own special project in a series of dates in switzerland and Italy.