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Songwriting

Drawing upon 45 + years as a songwriter and performer Country Joe McDonald will assist the student in writing and performing of their own material. This can be for any style of music and for any length of time experience in writing or performing. He will offer suggestions and examples of how to succeed in whatever your goal may be with your craft. It can be for your own enjoyment or to have a career as a performer or as a song writer. Using examples of his own songs and how they came about he will encourage the student to develop and improve their own personal style of songwriting.

About Country Joe McDonald

"Country" Joe was a west-coast kid, although born in Washington, DC in 1942, he grew up around Los Angeles. In the early 1960's he moved up to Berkeley. It was in Berkeley where Joe became involved in the Free Speech Movement, Civil Rights and the Anti-War Movement. Country Joe and the Fish were formed in 1965 as a vehicle to grow these ideas and entertain the movements' participants at marches and rallies.

Country Joe & the Fish worked regularly in the San Francisco area in 1965, the mecca of the west-coast psychedelic music scene. The band was a regular at the famous SF ballrooms - The Avalon and Fillmore Auditorium. Their first record, ELECTRIC MUSIC FOR THE MIND AND BODY, was released on Vanguard Records in 1967. Their follow-up record, I FEEL LIKE I'M FIXIN TO DIE, came out later in the same year and stayed at #32 on the Billboard charts for about two years. The band was gaining popularity and toured the "ballroom" circuit as well as college campuses across America. They played the Monterey Pop Festival later that year. By 1968 when they released their third album they were touring the world successfully.

Joe's appearance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 became a milestone that would forever change Joe's career and the direction of his music. It was at Woodstock that Joe immortalized the famous FISH cheer.....changing a few letters to spell a word that spoke to the age's defiance of the establishment. With the release of the Woodstock movie in 1970, the song became an anthem.

Joe was also signed to Vanguard as a solo artist and went to Nashville in 1969 to make a record of Woody Guthrie songs and country standards. The beginning of 1970 saw Joe take a step away from working with the Fish and establishing himself as a solo performer. With just his guitar and songs he played countless festivals throughout Europe to an overwhelming response. After living in Europe he returned to the US in 1975 and signed with Fantasy Records. His first release for the new label, PARADISE WITH AN OCEAN VIEW, was released in 1975 and it is Joe's best-selling and most highly acclaimed release. After a stint with Fantasy, Joe decided to form his own label, "Rag Baby", and continued to release his music under this label.

In 1982 Joe began working with the Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans Against The War. Aside from his involvement with the anti-war movement, Joe was also involved in other issues of the times....the plight of the whales and other ecological issues, woman's rights, human rights, animal rights and social issues.

Joe has been the songwriter of a generation and his songs tell the tales of the times as well. Whether Joe is writing an anti-war song or a song on Florence Nightingale (a subject he is a scholar on) he has always put the words to the song. He is able to use history and wit in equal measure in his art of SONGWRITING, and his discography is like a library and his songs are chapters.

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