Songwriter Joel Rafael Releases New Album BALADISTA Today

Critically acclaimed, California songwriter and seminal folk artist Joel Rafael will release his ninth album, Baladista, today, April 14 (April 10 International) on Inside Recordings. Inside Recordings, a label created by Jackson Browne and his management team, is distributed worldwide by Alternative Distribution Alliance. The album will be available for preorder beginning today, February 17.

iTunes order: https://itunes.apple.com/album/baladista/id963143492

Amazon order: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SZQ2I9M

The album's first single and video, "Old Portland Town," will also be released today. The song tells the tale of Rafael's experience being arrested in Portland as part of a city-wide sweep of the entire underground. He had migrated there from Los Angeles with a group of outlaws, artists, writers and mystics in an effort to avoid the impending military draft. YouTube link: http://youtu.be/5O27rnFeH2A

Another album highlight is "Love's First Lesson," a co-write with Eagles songwriter Jack Tempchin. The two have been friends since the 1970s when they met while performing at the Blue Ridge Guitar Shop in Encinitas.

Baladista was recorded and mixed by Joel Rafael at his Bravebear Ranch in North San Diego County, California. "The album is homegrown in the truest sense," says Rafael. "I used a simple stripped down approach and recorded the whole thing at home, here in my own studio." Joining him on the album are Greg Leisz, James "Hutch" Hutchinson, John Inmon and Terry "Buffalo" Ware.

Joel Rafael has been writing and performing since 1974 and over the past decades has released a stunning collection of eight Americana albums, including a 2CD Woody Guthrie collection with five Guthrie/Rafael co-writes. As a solo performer and with his band, he opened shows throughout the southwestern United States for artists including Crosby, Stills and Nash, Sheryl Crow, Laura Nyro, Joan Baez, Taj Mahal, Iris DeMent, Emmylou Harris, and John Lee Hooker.