It’s only February. Just yesterday, Groundhog Day, I went surfing and busted my shin on a piece of submerged ice. I went home and listened to a new Steve Poltz album. Life is good, folks.
Poltz, the California-by-way-of-Canada singer-songwriter, deserves many more hyphens than contained in this sentence.
Probably best known for his collaboration with Jewel and co-writer of “You Were Meant For Me,” Poltz is a genre unto himself.
To quote his song “Folksinger” he’s a washed-up punk. In another of my favorite songs, “Wrong Town” he sings, “My style icon is Emmylou Harris, mixed with a little Don Was.” He later sings “I’m emo, I’m screamo, I’m country and I’m folk Americana, If you wanna, I’m old-fashioned but I’m woke.” He even comes with his own ingredients label: “Don’t panic, I’m organic, I’m too scared to be satanic, but mostly, I’m just here to sing for you.”
His 14th album, “JoyRide” was released Jan. 30, 2026 via Red House Records and it’s probably best to let him describe it in his owns.
“Capturing me on tape is like convincing a whirling dervish to stop spinning long enough to sign a bill into law. It’s chaos, caffeine, and accidental poetry — art colliding with microphones and commerce in a glorious mess. That’s how JoyRide happened. No seatbelts, no helmets. Just unsaturated, unadulterated art. Real humans making real noise in real time,” Poltz wrote about the album.
The album opens with “If It Bleeds It Leads,” which in typcial Poltz fashion takes the folk song taken from the headlines and flips it on its head.
The fingerpicking on “Petrichor” is furious. Poltz describes it as “Inspired by the beautiful smell after it rains. (I later discovered Phish has one too, but mine’s the barefoot cousin at brunch.)”
Emmylou Harris’s rhythm section Bryan Owings and Chris Donohue joins Poltz on “At It Again” which was co-written with legendary Nashville singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale.
The title track could describe Poltz’s life since writing “Folksinger” more than a decade ago. “Free hugs, no shrugs, wrong drugs, bedbugs. Smiles, laughter, for here ever after.”
To see a Poltz live is part folk music, part stand-up comedy and the closest he has come to this in the studio is “The Son of God.” My favorite line is “Everything’s free in hell, except for your soul. Ever since ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia’ things have gone sideways. Hang on, let me light my cigarette.”
Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon joins Poltz for “Love a Little Bigger” and “Brand New Liver” sounds like it could be written by Doug Stanhope.
Poltz has a very sweet side that rarely gets the spotlight and he slows it down long enough to be visible on “Fixin’ Up.”
The album closes with “Hairline.” I’ll let Poltz take the rest from here:
“That one has my favorite line I’ve ever written: “I used to play ping pong with my old friend Mao Zedong. I thought he told me I was well hung, but he was speaking in the mother tongue.”
That’s JoyRide. Ten songs, no filter, no seatbelt, no map. Big thanks to Dex Green for being the musical trickster who lured me into the studio. Party on, weirdos.”
Don’t miss a chance to see Steve Poltz live. It’s one of the best things you could do for yourself and the people you love.
If you want to hear Poltz tell some amazing stories, check out my podcast with him. Only second to that is the chat we had with his friend Keller Williams.
Get “JoyRide” from Red House Records, Bandcamp, Amazon, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Deezer and qobuz.
Favorite Tracks
Petrichor
Joyride
The Son of God
Fixin’ Up
Brand New Liver
Hairline
