Joel dreams songs. “It usually happens around 4:30 in the mourning. I am awoken by a song. It’s like it needs to be heard. I can’t go back to sleep. The song won’t let me. So I go down to my studio and record all I can remember. Later, when I have more time, I sit down and try to let the rest come out. It’s like channeling music. It’s been happening since I was a kid, but now, thanks to all new technology, I can translate what I comes to me in dreams into something other people can hear.”

Over the past ten years, he has taken his songs to the street, performing all over the US and beyond hoping someday to sing his songs to the people for whom the were intended. “I have to write constantly,” he says. “Because the songs just keep coming.” The inspiration of these songs has led to more than forty albums and countless live shows, including the annual Holiday Show at the Press Room in Portsmouth, NH.

Will he ever come in out of the cold permanently? “No, never. The street is my favorite part. It’s where the most amazing things happen. There’s nothing like the look on a little kids face when they see me barefoot out busking in the winter.”