Biography

Joe Poirier is a guitarist / singer / songwriter / who originally hails from Cape Breton Island and now resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. As a child, his father, an accomplished fiddle player himself, introduced Joe to whatever instruments that were around the household. By age 12, he settled on the guitar and started learning some of the Rock ‘n’ Roll music he enjoyed, which led him to the discovery of Blues music.

After graduating from the Jazz program at St. Francis Xavier University, Joe decided to pursue a career as a musician. At this point Joe took whatever opportunity came his way and performed in a variety of bands playing Country, Rock, Celtic, Jazz, or Folk.

In 1998, Joe got a call from an old band mate from his university years, Ray Mattie (from the band Pogey), who persuaded him to move to Barrie, Ontario to play East Coast music. For about 2 years the two performed together under the name Tidal Wave. While in Barrie,
Joe continued playing with whoever he could, developing his guitar stylings while beginning to step up to the mic to sing. Soon Joe would be known as an aggressive, energetic and enthusiastic guitarist dedicated to entertain anyone who was willing to listen.

In 2001, Joe recorded his first album with Steve Henry on bass and Ron Hill on drums (both from Orillia, Ontario). The CD entitled Help Me Stand, featured ten songs with six original compositions written or co-written by Joe.

In 2002, Joe made his move to Toronto. Even though he was living in Canada’s largest city, he made his living on the road playing guitar, bass, mandolin or even violin across North America with any group that would call him. After a few years on the road, Joe wanted to get back to playing his brand of butt kicking, name taking Blues-Rock that he was born to play. So he started venturing out in the city
as he did before in Barrie.

Currently Joe is promoting the release of 2 new recordings that he has done with fellow band mates Scott Milligen on drums and Rob Brown (aka Lord Bubba) on bass.