At least a few of the times we got together with Neil MacGonigill (at the Wild Rose, naturally), conversation would drift to Beautiful Joe. It's a band he thought would go far (like, Jann Arden - or Blue Rodeo, who they were sometime compared to - far). But it wasn't to be, as the liner notes to this CD spell out. During their time, Beautiful Joe were a heck of a band. Just looking at the band members - including veterans Danny Patton and Tim Leacock, plus Jane Hawley and Steve Pineo, with Ross Watson holding things down on drums... there isn't a slouch in the band. Despite having several great songwriters in the band, this CD leans heavily on covers that are as diverse as they are well-played (that cover of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" is absolute gold). We still wonder what a full album from Beautiful Joe would have sounded like... but we'll take this as a very nice consolation prize. [img width=672.422px]//7ca49eb9f67ba1319ef136f9d52cd8b8.cdn.bubble.io/f1764815998964x675894033287562000/richtext_content.jpeg[/img] Beautiful Joe has a bright future JAMES MURETICH CALGARY HERALD If the past is any indication, Beautiful Joe's future is a rosy one indeed. Legendary Canadian producer Brian Ahern is in town this week recoding the Calgary country-rock band at Bullshooters on Macleod Trail. Ahern is considered one of North America's seminal producers for his work over the past three decades with such artists as Anne Murray, Emmylou Harris, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Rodney Crowell, Ricky Skaggs and Roy Orbison, who won his first Grammy for the Ahern-produced song That Loving You Feeling Again. The media-shy producer is also reclusive and leery of having his photo taken or doing an extensive interview. However, when asked what he liked about Beautiful Joe, he responded: "If you can describe them, then they're not worth recording." The live recordings from Beautiful Joe's performances at the local club, which wrap up tonight, will allow Ahern to become even more intimately acquainted with the band's music before it heads to Nashville in March or April to record with the Halifax-born producer. In addition, says the band's manager Neil MacGonigill, an independent live CD will be culled from recordings of this week's shows, "kind of 60 minutes of Beautiful Joe lurking in the weeds." The disc will be released early in the new year and will go on sale at the group's gigs. MacGonigill, who also manages Calgary recording artist Jann Arden, first met Ahern when he was k.d. lang's tour manager. He sparked Ahern's interest in the band by sending him a demo tape of Beautiful Joe's music earlier this year. "He doesn't take on many projects but he really likes this band," says MacGonigill. "He came up here in March and saw them play in Longview for three nights and then at Kaos. His idea for recording them this week was to do some live recordings as pre-production," says MacGonigill. "He felt it was very important that the record we're going to make sounds like the band and he wanted to study these tapes before we head down to Nashville (where Ahern now lives)." Ahern used the same approach when he recorded Emmylou Harris performing at the Red Fox Inn in Silver Springs, Maryland prior to producing her 1975 Pieces of the Sky album. Interestingly, Beautiful Joe performs a version of Hickory Wind by the late Gram Parsons during its show. Harris sang with Parsons. Needless to say, Beautiful Joe is sky high over working with Ahern. "The thing is so great about him is that there's not a lot of ego there. There's just a whole lot of knowledge and a sharing of that knowledge," said guitarist Tim Leacock. "It's been great."
