Joy Clark

Raised in Harvey, Louisiana — Based in New Orleans

Joy Clark is a Louisiana-born singer-songwriter and guitarist whose debut album Tell It to the Wind arrived in 2024 on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. A former touring guitarist with Grammy winner Cyril Neville, she blends the social consciousness of folk, the rhythms of Southeast Louisiana, and the soul-centered church music she grew up on into what she calls “Heart and Soul” music.

Never heard Joy Clark before?

🎵 Signature Song

“Lesson” (2024)

🎶 Style

Folk · Blues · Heart & Soul

🎸 Plays

Guitar · Vocals

Tell It to the Wind is my story of how I learned to shine, and I hope that it might encourage others to stand out as their whole, true selves too.

— Joy Clark

Why We Love Joy Clark

There is a moment in nearly every Joy Clark show where the room goes completely still — usually somewhere in the middle of “Lesson,” the song she wrote for her grandmother. Clark makes music about becoming yourself out loud: raised in a devout, homeschooled family in Harvey, Louisiana, she picked up a pawn-shop guitar and found her way from the church pew to the University of New Orleans to the national stage without sanding down any of her edges. Her guitar playing is intricate and warm, her voice carries the church and the South in every line, and Tell It to the Wind plays like a love letter to the traditions that raised her and a declaration of independence at the same time. New Orleans has a long line of guitar slingers; Clark is something rarer — a songwriter who makes vulnerability sound like strength.

Biography

Heart and Soul, from Harvey to the National Stage

Louisiana born-and-raised, Joy Clark grew up the youngest of five children in a tight-knit, deeply religious family just outside of New Orleans. Her father, a pastor who taught English in the Jefferson Parish schools, and her mother, who taught Joy and her siblings at home, filled the house with music: Joy honed her guitar chops and was introduced to the stage leading worship services with her siblings every Sunday in Harvey, Louisiana. As a kid she wanted “a guitar, boots, and a horse” — and on a pawn-shop guitar she taught herself to play the R&B melodies she loved.

While studying sociology, history, and English at the University of New Orleans, Clark ventured into New Orleans’ legendary music scene and soaked up its “do whatcha wanna” spirit. She earned a regular spot touring with living legend and Grammy winner Cyril Neville, and played professionally in bands for the likes of Allison Russell and Brandi Carlile — a guitar education that moved from the church pew straight to the funk stage.

“I cut my teeth in New Orleans, playing with people like Cyril Neville, so I was playing a lot of funk music — and I came from the church.”

— Joy Clark, to Acoustic Guitar

Her debut solo album, Tell It to the Wind (2024), arrived on Righteous Babe Records, Ani DiFranco’s label: a queer New Orleans coming-of-age story blending the social consciousness of folk, the rhythms of Southeast Louisiana, and the soul-centered music she grew up with. The single “Lesson” is a tribute to her grandmother — the family member who met her truth with open arms.