Joe Walsh is a musician who legendary fiddler Darol Anger called “one of my favorite musicians on earth.” Recognized as one of the foremost contemporary mandolinists, Joe has also won acclaim and affection for his vocals and his talents on a number of other instruments, including guitar and octave mandolin. With two solo albums to his credit, he tours internationally with the award-winning bluegrass supergroup The Gibson Brothers, and was recently named Managing Director of the American Roots Music Program at the Berklee College of Music.
Joe started playing stringed instruments in high school in Minnesota, and moved to the Northeast when he was admitted to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, as its first student with a principal instrument of the mandolin. While there he studied with John McGann, Matt Glaser, and Eugene Friesen, among others, and became the school’s first graduate on the mandolin. While still a student, Joe helped found the genre-bending indie-pop string band Joy Kills Sorrow, with which he played for several years. He also worked for several years with both the New England Bluegrass Band and Northern Lights, two of the best bluegrass groups to arise from the northeast’s potent music scene.