Jo D’Anna has been described as a “folksy and sincere” singer-songwriter/guitarist who has a pleasing, natural voice and a signature guitar style combining rhythmic strumming and finger-picking. Her songs are inspired by, and reminiscent of, the folk-rock icons of the Laurel Canyon songwriters of the late 60s/early 70s. She’s a storyteller through song, and into her poetic lyrics she weaves images of nature inspired by the trails, forests, wildlife, beaches, mountains and coastal towns indigenous to the land where she has made her home for the last 30 years in a small coastal valley near Point Reyes Seashore.
Jo D’Anna is originally from Palo Alto, CA, where she took her first guitar lessons with Jerry Garcia in the back of Dana Morgan Music Store during the summer of ’63. She also lived in the same Menlo Park neighborhood as Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, which just happened to be down the road from the Grateful Dead’s early home known as “The Chateau”. The San Francisco psychedelic counter-culture which surrounded her early years is what shaped Jo D’Anna’s songwriting later on (although her music is actually more reminiscent of the Laurel Canyon songwriters of the late 60s/early 70s). After relocating to West Marin in 1990 (where she still resides), Jo started writing songs seriously and won numerous awards for “Best Song” and “Best Performance” in various Bay Area showcase competitions hosted by West Coast Songwriters Association. Since 1993, Jo has performed all over the Greater Bay Area — preferring the listening venues of coffee-houses, cafes, and folk stages at local music festivals, house concerts, and the like. She has also performed onstage at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, and has appeared in numerous songwriter showcase spots in folk clubs in San Francisco.
She has independently released 2 CDs in 1995 and 2007, 1 EP in October of 2018, and her latest album, “Ocean In Your Eyes” was just released on 2/22/22, as well as a music video of the title track of that album, which she released in late October 2021. On June 1, 2022, Jo received the great news that she received a GOLD Viddy Award (via her publishing company MusoPhile Productions), as well as her videographers Irene Young & Tina Silano, and co-Producer Ben Leinbach, for the music video ‘Ocean In Your Eyes’.
She is a verified artist on Spotify and iTunes, where you can listen to/stream all four of her album releases. From June through November 2021, Jo did a special COVID quarantine video project on her YouTube channel in which she videorecorded one original song per week which was then posted on her YouTube Channel.
Other sites where you can find out more about Jo D’Anna and follow her gigs and/or music projects is via her website (www.jodanna.com), which is currently under reconstruction, but will be available again soon; or via her Facebook Music Page: @MusoPhile.