Joy Damiani is a writer, podcaster, and musician (latest release: Notes to Self and Others, 2020) whose songs skip up and down the spectrum between snarky and sweet, straddling the smudged line between folk and anti-folk. Recruited into the U.S. Army at age 19 out of her hometown of Syracuse, NY, she spent six years as a public affairs specialist. By the end of her second deployment to Iraq, she knew she needed to use her propaganda powers for good instead of evil. She learned to play her first instrument, the ukulele, and soon had written and recorded her debut album I’ve Got Your Folk Songs Right Here (under former name Emily Yates), followed by Folk In Your Face in 2014. While planning her third album, a traumatic divorce nearly caused her to quit music completely, but instead, she channeled her healing process into self-producing and releasing Notes to Self and Others in 2020, before changing her name and stepping into the next chapter of her life by reclaiming her inner Joy. Her next single, a collaboration with Pamela Parker, is scheduled for release in fall 2021. She’s toured the U.S. extensively and is currently based in Portland, Ore.
Joy co-hosts a biweekly podcast, What the Folk, with writer Sarah Baranauskas, which centers on music, politics, art, and activism, and features guests from all over the creative spectrum.
She has published various articles, essays, and poems, and has written a book inspired by her military experiences, due out in 2022.
For updates from Joy, get on her email list! You’ll find out first about book news and new music, and you’ll be personally invited to upcoming shows.