Joe Krown interview
offBEAT, April 2005

 Joe Krown is a resident and is based out of the city of New Orleans. He is a New Orleans styled piano and Hammond B-3 player. He has been nominated twice and won a New Orleans Big Easy Award in the Blues category in April 2001. He'is an endorsee for Hammond Suzuki Keyboards.

Joe held the keyboard chair with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown & Gate’s Express from 1992 until Gatemouth's passing in the fall of 2005. Joe is featured on the chart topping albums The Man (1993), Gate Swings (1997), American Music, Texas Style (1999) and Back to Bogalusa (2001) CDs and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - In Concert: Ohne Filter (2003) DVD. Joe is also featured in Gatemouth's band on Carlos Santana's Carlos Santana Presents Blues At Montreux 2004 (2006) DVD. In 1995, Gatemouth and Gate's Express including Joe on keyboards, did a 62 date world tour as the opening act for Eric Clapton. The band, Gate's Express won an Offbeat 2004 Best Band in the Blues Category.

Joe'is band, the Joe Krown Organ Combo (New Orleans, LA) was formed in 1999. The Joe Krown Organ Combo performs every week at one of the many New Orleans nightclubs, including the Maple Leaf Bar, House of Blues, Tipitina's, Le Bon Temps Roule, dba, and Banks St. Bar & Grill. The "Combo" makes regular appearances at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. They have appeared at such noted nightclubs as the Boom Boom Room in San Fransisco, CA and Tobacco Road in NYC. The band made its European debut in November 2001 at the Ingolstadt Jazztage in Ingolstadt Germany. The Joe Krown Organ Combo has 4 CD releases. Down & Dirty (1999), Buckle Up (2000) and Funkyard (2002) were all released on the New Orleans label STRdigital. The Joe Krown Organ Combo’s newest release, Livin’ Large was released in February 2005 and is Joe's first self-produced, independently released CD.

 From 1996 until 2001, Joe played a solo piano gig called "Traditional Piano Night" every Monday night at the Maple Leaf Bar. In Sept. 2001 Joe moved the Traditional Piano Night to Le Bon Temps Roule on Friday evenings where he continues to play the music in the likes of Professor Longhair, Dr John. He's been a headline performer at WWOZ's Piano Night during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival every year since 1997. Joe made his solo piano European debut with a tour in Germany in November 2003 with a follow-up tour in September 2005. Joe was invited to return to Germany in September 2006 to be a part of the Barrelhouse Jazz Party, a tour with the popular German jazz group, the Barrelhouse Jazzband. Joe has two piano CDs on the New Orleans label STRdigital. Just the Piano...Just the Blues (1998) is a solo piano performance featuring 9 original New Orleans piano/boogie-woogie style compositions. His most current piano CD, New Orleans Piano Rolls (2003) is the follow up to Just the Piano...Just the Blues featuring Joe in 15 solo piano performances.

 In June 2000, Joe formed an acoustic delta blues super group with Jumpin' Johnny Sansone (harmonica, vocals) and John Fohl (acoustic guitar and vocals) featuring Joe on piano. Sansone, Krown & Fohl made their New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival debut in May 2001. Sansone, Krown & Fohl released their first CD, self titled Sansone, Krown & Fohl in April 2004. The trio can be still be seen performing at Snug Harbor in New Orleans. Sansone Krown & Fohl won a 2004 Big Easy Award in the blues category

In October 2005 after Hurricane Katrina and the failures of the federal levee systems destroyed Joe's home city of New Orleans, he returned home and started playing around New Orleans with his trio, the Joe Krown Trio. The trio features Joe on piano, Brint Anderson on guitar and vocals and Mike Barras on drums. The trio features Joe playing tradtional New Orleans R&B piano and boogie woogies. In March of 2007, Krown released his 8th CD Old Friends (2007) featuring the trio.

In the fall of 2007, Joe was invited to be part of the Solid Blues Tour (10/5/07 to 11/18/07) with Mavis Staples, Charlie Musselwhite and the North Mississippi Allstars. Joe played a 30 minute solo piano set, then he played piano and organ with the North Mississippi Allstars backing up Charlie Musselwhite & Mavis Staples. The tour started in the Pacific Northwest and went cross country ending in New England. The Solid Blues Tour was nominated for a 2007 Jammy Award for "Tour of the Year".