For Every Song There’s a Story…
And Every Story There's a Song.
Born in Muncie, Indiana, Joe grew up with a love and passion for music...singing along to 8-track recordings of Elvis, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and others. He attended his first concert at the age of 8 at a county fair. It was Marty Robbins. Later his older brother gave him a job helping deliver newspapers and every morning they would "Jam" to very loud rock music from the likes of Meatloaf, Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen, REO Speedwagon, Survivor, Bob Seger, Journey, and many others. He started playing keyboards in 8th grade and has been playing ever since.
Joe graduated from Ball State University in 1994 majoring in Telecommunications and Computer Science. He worked in Nashville, TN on several music videos from 1994 to 1995 but moved back to Indiana when his son was born in early 1996. When a daughter was born in 1997... Joe put his music and video production careers on hold and used his talent for computers spending many years as a software engineer / architect for major corporations.
A couple years ago, Joe decided to learn to play guitar and his love of music flourished. He has played over a thousand shows at fairs, festivals, breweries, basements, backyards, giant stages and coffee houses.
Joe Shelton is a performer that connects directly with the audience through pouring his heart and soul into every song. He’s taken the Indie Music scene by storm with the roaring success of his last 2 studio efforts The Americana Diaries which grabbed him a nomination for 2018 Album of the Year in NUVO as well as a nomination for Best Vocalist and In 2019 Joe released City of Trains which has over 5 million streams and got him a nomination in the Indy Star for 2019 Best Musical Artist. Joe calls Indianapolis home, but prior to the 2020 pandemic he toured and played over 200 nights per year. Joe tours all over the place and plays music everywhere from the House of Blues in New Orleans to hometown shows at Radio Radio in Indianapolis ... anywhere to spread his music. Joe’s songs evoke the love of family, the heartbreak of loss and catapult you into a world filled with heartfelt emotions.
Photographer: Bailey Shelton
Show: Alley’s Alehouse - 2019