by Monique Franz
The value of a man’s choices are best known after years have passed and most of the pages of the story have been turned. When we examine the life and music of the blues icon Joe Beard, we are intrigued by the parts of his story that made him exceptional, that gave him longevity on the music scene, that made him the living legend he is to our city. In Spring 2024, we met Joe and became inspired by that which led him to become Rochester’s face of blues.
Joe, the Musician
A tall, slender silhouette appears in the hallway at the Record Archive’s music lounge near the heart of Rochester, New York. Joe strolls from the back entrance with a guitar case. Before taking the stage, he peeks from under a black fedora and greets bar patrons with a Delta smile. The bluesman steps onstage, carrying a confidence bred in decades of music and eighty-six years of life.
He unsheathes a red Gibson 345 and warms his fingers on the guitar’s neck. The guitarist stands before an all-white audience, one that might have ostracized him during his Jim Crow childhood in Ashland, Mississippi. His band members are hippie types with long gray hair. They glance up at him as he nears the mic, seeming to sync as one before the music begins.
Prior to this, Joe’s drummer, Mark Canti, told us the band only had two rehearsals in the last thirty-five years. The fluidity of their performance could only be attributed to their years together and their ability to follow Joe’s subtle cues: a “tilt of the head” or the “slightest movement” of the body.
“Joe’s a man of few words,” Mark told us before the set. “He communicates on another level.”
It is, no doubt, this intuitive level that enables Joe to read, and thus captivate, his audience. According to the drummer, Joe has a history of “playing long grooves” like Jimi Hendrix, including one groove that went on nonstop for “3.55 hours.”
***
At the mic, Joe greets the audience. “Hello ladies and gentlemen.” His voice is reminiscent of sweet potato pie—Southern, honeyed, warm. The room hushes with expectation. The bluesman takes one step backwards, cues the keyboardist with a smile, and the band erupts into Sonny Boy’s classic, “Help Me.”
The crowd lights up, swaying to the music, tapping on the table, mouthing the lyrics. Joe strums his Gibson, wearing no residue of arrogance, neither tint of past ghosts. The authenticity of his sound, however, conjures images of the backwoods of the south, shanty juke joints, and that famous intersection of Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Joe’s Personal Crossroads
According to legend, blues was conceived at the crossroads of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale. Robert Johnson, a historical blues figure, was said to have exchanged his soul for his musical prowess. According to lore, his transaction with the devil at the intersection led to influential hits like "Cross Road Blues" and "Sweet Home Chicago. " But Johnson’s debt was required of him at the young age of twenty-seven. His legacy became as much about him selling his soul for fame as it was about his groundbreaking music.
In 1938, the year of Johnson’s death, Joe Beard was born to play out a different destiny. He picked up a guitar at age fifteen, intuitively “knowing” he would play it. As though a Delta deity kissed him with musical skill, he would go on to play Blues guitar that epitomized that Ol’ Mississippi sound. His musical aptitude would carry him to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was in company with the greats: John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, and Muddy Waters. However, when presented the chance to move to Chicago, the Mecca of Blues, Joe chose not to go. Chicago was the logical choice for any guitarist to further his career, but Joe continued east to upstate New York. Instead of choosing the “Sweet Home” the legendary Johnson sang about, where B.B. King and Muddy Waters thrived in their professions, Joe chose a life centered with loved ones in Rochester.
“I didn’t live the life of most musicians. I didn’t get into drinking and drugs or none of those things,” Joe told us. “I had the opportunity to move to Chicago to be with all those guys, but I chose family first.”
In Rochester, Joe and his siblings ran Beard Construction for fifty years. When Joe wasn’t lighting up music venues with music, he worked as an electrician. He and his wife Mary raised four children: Chris, Duane, Celestine, and Lorie. The eldest son, Chris, now follows in his father’s footsteps, playing his own guitar on stages throughout the northeast. He and Chris even recorded a song together, one where Chris admonishes his father to “Pass It on Down,” a reference to his dad’s legacy of music.
Unlike the typical story of musicians whose “blues” are pictures of their fractured homes and families, Joe remained married to the same woman for sixty-seven years, a woman who stood with him and his music until her recent passing from Alzheimer’s disease. The widower fondly remembers meeting Mary at the fairgrounds in Memphis, Tennessee.
“She was getting off the Jack Rabbit,” Joe told us, referring to an amusement ride he himself would not get on. But Mary got his attention that day and kept his heart for nearly seven decades thereafter. The blues icon told us proudly, “In sixty- years, she and I never separated, not even for one day.”
According to Mark the drummer, Joe didn’t like touring much and turned down many invitations. So, the band usually tours close to home, in places like NYC, Boston, and Pennsylvania.
“I think he was happy. He got what he wanted in Rochester,” Mark explained. “I don’t know that he was ever comfortable with notoriety or getting huge. He experienced enough on the road to see how sucky it is. He had a successful business, and he had his family.”
The Final Set
As the night ends, Joe gently sets down his guitar. Something about this final detail highlights the reality we may be witnessing a living legend in the final chapter of his story, a story that redeems the bluesman at the crossroads. So many musicians have put their music first at the expense of their loved ones, and through fast living, fortune, and fame, they eventually lost themselves, but Joe maintains the integrity of his soul.
“I’m so happy that I did what I did,” Joe told us, showing no regrets.
Joe now ranks among the greatest blues guitarists that ever lived. He has several acclaimed albums and even performed for the inauguration gala of U.S. President George H.W. Bush. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame, a tribute to honor the bluesman who made the city his home. The beauty of Joe’s story is that he chose family over fame at his own personal crossroads. Now, we see in his final pages that he won it all—his loved ones, the music, and a city that loves him.
Comments