Diamond Joe

Born Joseph Maryland, Diamond Joe recorded seven 45 RPM records with the great Allan Toussaint between 1961 and 1968. He was one of those artists who lived and died in utter obscurity, at least outside the Crescent City, with all of his work out of print and very hard to locate... yet whose tiny catalog of recorded output is highly prized and garners the highest accolade among those who are familiar with his work. His intense vocals came in for particular praise, and his music was considered to be ahead of its time. He dropped out of sight after 1969 and was reputed to be homeless for some period. He died in Houma, LA September 2, 2010 (leaving six children, sixteen grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren) and is interred in Southdown Cemetary there. Posthumous appreciations of his music may be found at http://funky16corners.com/?p=850 and http://funky16corners.com/f16zine/WEB/11_diamondjoe.htm. (Note: there were apparently other musicians known as Diamond Joe. Only the first picture is of Diamond Joe Maryland.) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.