The best writing comes from writing what you know - and based on Joel Rafael’s life experiences and over 50 years of making music, he has a deep well from which to draw.  He has chronicled his life and the world around him with passionate songwriting rooted in the folk tradition.

Rafael began performing in showcases and small clubs around Southern California in the early 70s.  In 1981, he toured with Jesse Colin Young, and released his debut album, Dharma Bums.  Rafael won Kerrville’s new folk award in 1995 and gained national airplay with the seminal Joel Rafael Band.  He composed and performed all original music for the LA Theatre Works production of The Grapes of Wrath in 2002 and toured the southwest with Joan Baez in 2003. No influence is more obvious in his work than that of Woody Guthrie, with whom he shares five co-writes, and Joel has been a featured performer at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival for all 27 years.

“In the society of illusion, reality must manifest itself. The story songs of Joel Rafael are that manifestation… the essence of minstrel.”
– John Trudell

“Joel Rafael’s songs are filled with passion and compassion; passion for social justice and compassion for those among us who have to struggle for a place at the table of American prosperity. His voice is unmistakably his own, big, warm, and strong, and a conductor for the human emotions that connect us all.”                     - Jackson Browne.