Joe Jordan

One Liner: Low key, DIY-feeling country and toothpicks
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is country
Home: Cincinnati

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 20
Day: Friday at 5:15
Second Weekend Only

BMI Stage

Thoughts:   The top entry in Wikipedia is a dead American ragtime piano guy who wrote songs for a lot of classic guys like Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman.  There are a bunch of other "famous" guys with this name as well - an Irish hurler, a civil rights activist and judge, an English naval officer, a Scottish football player and coach, etc. etc.  I again wonder why so many of the artists on the poster this year are just first and last names.

He grew up in a Rhode Island town named Woonsocket, which is a wonderful town name.  His family had a family band that would play around the area, but soon enough he and his wife moved to Cincinnati and started firing out kids and songs.  Multiple of his photos include him with a toothpick in his mouth, so I guess that is a thing.  There have also been several mentions of God and Christianity, so I think that is another thing here.

First single on Spotify is 2023, then a 2024 EP called Born to be Broken, a 2025 EP called Oh! The Anxiety, and finally a 2026 album called The Heart Sessions.  Feels kind of like the Zach Bryan thing, where there are tons of songs - feels like so many singles for only three years.  The stream count is nothing like Bryan, but just the prolific output.  Top streamer is "Big Enough Mountain", a 2024 single that made it onto that Born to Be Broken EP.  12.7 million streams.

I don't think the sound is in line with the ZB stuff, sounds more like regular county and less stripped down than those who came out of the ZB lineage.  "I love you a whole, whole lot" and "I could try, try to count, numbers just don't go that high" are truly terrible lines though.  The top YouTube comment is a guy saying he is "going too sing this song too my wife on our wedding day" [sic] and I feel like this says a lot about the people who love this song.  That was rude, but I still stand by it.

The top song from the new album is "Deeper Talks" with 7.9 million streams.

That song is a whole, whole lot better than the earlier one.  Hey, he has a toothpick!  I think the accompaniment is what is making me like it more.  Not so sure the lyrics are upping the ante just yet.  He may be the best thing during this hour though...