Santa Barbara's arts journalist and avant jazz guitarist
 
I met Joe Woodard back in the days when I wrote at the Independent. Later he and his group Headless Household would score my second short film Walk Cycle. Since then I'e covered the band on and off as they've gone on long hiatus after long hiatus and then come back with an interesting, left-field album, (yes, including that polka one) with Woodard on silvery jazz guitar, Tom Lackner on drums and electronics, Dick Dunlap on keyboards, and Chris Symer on bass. (And usually a guest singer or two). Now they're back with their latest, Balladismo, a mix of Woodard's melancholic songs and free jazz workouts.

And since I've known him, he's been writing on jazz sax man and Santa Barbara resident Charles Lloyd. That's culminated in the new biography, Charles Lloyd: A Wild, Blatant Truth.

In this interview we get into the making of the book, his own and Santa Barbara's arts history (the two are entwined), the new album, influences, favorite interviews (this one, for sure!), and songwriting.

His website is here, while his label HouseHold.Ink is here.