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
sensitivity 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’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 distributed 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 been
developing his own special project in a series of dates in Switzerland
and Italy.