Joshua Kadison

Joshua Kadison (born February 8 1963 in Santa Barbara, California) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and writer.

Early life

Joshua grew up in Westlake Village, California, the younger of two sons. His mother was of Mexican-American Indian descent. At age 12 he started playing the piano and subsequently started to write songs. After his mother died, when he was 15, he received his drivers licence and left home (with the blessing of his father) to become a travelling troubadour. He later admitted that anger and confusion over his mother's death drove much of his songwriting during this time. He later wrote "Mama's Arms" about his pain over losing his mother as a teenager; it was featured on his first album Painted Desert Serenade. He did the rounds of piano bars across the United States for the next decade. Eventually in the early 1990s he caught the attention of EMI and they signed him.

Career

According to an early press release by EMI "His maverick ways paid off in 1993 when EMI released his self-penned debut Painted Desert Serenade, a collection of introspective story songs including the break-through single "Jessie" and "When A Woman Cries," already covered by legends Joe Cocker and Smokey Robinson. "I was so used to being outside of whatever was going on that I didn't even think I'd get a record deal, much less have my songs played on the radio." This, from the young man who received the BMI Award for one of the most played songs of 1994. His international hit "Beautiful in My Eyes" is often played at weddings and peaked at #19 in the U.S. Billboard charts. Painted Desert Serenade went platinum in the US and Germany, and went multi-platinum in Australia and New Zealand".

His second album Delilah Blue was less commercially successful (the only single Take It On Faith failed to reach a high chart position). His collection of songs were closer to sonic novels than the ballads featured in his first album; he used John Steinbeck's book "The Pearl" as inspiration for a song of the same name. The only single Take it on Faith failed to reach the Billboards Top-10 and shortly after EMI voided the contract with Kadison. In 1998, after a 3-year break, he published his book 17 Ways To Eat A Mango: A Discovered Journal Of Life On An Island Of Miracles and the 5-track-album Saturday Night In Storyville on his own label Storyville Records, selling it predominantly from his website. It was well received in Germany, where he continues to have a huge following.

Another three years later, he signed a new deal with EMI Germany and his album Vanishing America, produced by Leslie Mandoki, was released. The album, released in May 2001, dealt with his disillusionment with the lost values of America. The album was a collection of songs that told stories about people not realising their own beauty and full potential. Ironically, the album was never distributed in the United States.

In 2005, Joshua relaunched his career on his self-run website "Radio Humanity."

In 2006, EMI released Essential a collection which included tracks from all three full-length studio albums and three additional tracks.

Personal life

2005 Kadison came out as a homosexual on his personal website.

Discography

• 1993: Painted Desert Serenade
• 1995: Delilah Blue
• 1998: Saturday night in Storyville
• 1999: Troubadour in a Timequake
• 2001: Vanishing America
• 2005: The Venice Beach Sessions - Part 1
• 2006: The Venice Beach Sessions - Part 2
• 2006: Essential

Books

• 17 ways to eat a mango: A discovered journal of life on an island of miracles. Hyperion, New York 1999. ISBN 0-7868-6457-5

External links

• Official website
• Joshua Kadison at laut.de (German)
• Yahoo Fanlist
• EMI Press Release

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