Conversations with Jo Corso

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jo Corso.

Hi Jo, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Syracuse, New York, and moved to Long Island for a large chunk of my childhood. My parents didn’t play instruments when they started having kids, but they had a huge passion for music. My dad was heavily into the 70’s soft rock stuff like Fleetwood Mac, Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen. In contrast, my mom went crazy for the 80’s hair metal artists like Poison, David Lee Roth, and Motley Crue. Everyone in our house eventually grew into their specific interests. Still, music and creativity were the things that always connected all of us. We always had the radio on so the house was buzzing with good energy.

We moved back to Syracuse when I was nine, and it was around the time I started getting my hands on all these instruments. I’d sneak into my little brother’s room to play his cello, bang my hands on my older brother’s keyboard, and would try to pry open my mom’s old trumpet case from high school. To this day, I still love approaching new instruments completely blind and trying to do my own thing with them. I’m under the mindset of “if it sounds good, it sounds good,” so allowing myself to try whatever I want on these instruments allows me to understand them in my way. I can’t read piano music for my life, but I love playing whatever comes to mind.

My first instrument was the tuba; to this day, I got sweet-talked into picking it. All the kids wanted to slam on drums and play sax solos while I was the only one sitting down with a 20-pound piece of brass in the back of the room. Then Guitar Hero happened. All my time and energy after school went into practicing “Hot For Teacher” in expert mode. The soundtrack to those games became the foundation of my music taste, and I fell in love with bands/artists like Paramore, Nirvana, Van Halen, Michael Jackson, etc. My dad took notice and went, “If he’s loving this, imagine what he’d do with an actual guitar.”

My dad’s only musical experience came from trying to learn guitar for a month in college to impress a girl. Still, he understood the dedication it took to play an instrument. He was my earliest supporter, and even though he didn’t understand the language of music, he loved how it made him feel. He funded my older brother and me with a Mexican-made Fender Stratocaster, which became our universe. I remember cleaning the finish with the rag it came with every night before I went to sleep. It became a permanent relationship in my life.

With the help of Peter Lavine, the guitar guru of Syracuse, and Youtube, I started devouring any bit of guitar music I could find. Peter would teach me everything about music theory and song structure. We spent weeks reviewing individual jazz and classical tunes and deconstructing what made them work the way they did. He gave me the vocabulary to look at music objectively and subjectively in ways that made listening to any genre of music a healthy and fulfilling experience for me. I learned from him my passion for exploring music and not judging books by their cover. His way of blending guitar instruction with philosophy and empathy forever changed me.

I moved to Nashville when I was 18 and immediately got scammed. I came here to learn more about the music industry and received one of the most important lessons of my life. I got involved with someone who faked multiple identities to convince us she was heavily connected and willing to help us become rock stars. It was mental; I couldn’t believe how naive I was. She almost got us to open a bank account to fund this project, but we figured it out before moving on with that plan. I was devasted. I wanted to move to New York and forget all this music stuff. But the biggest takeaway I found was that if I wanted to make a living off playing my guitar, it would be the complete opposite of “sitting around and waiting for shit to come to me.” In the next few years, I joined any band/artist looking for a guitar player and managed to play some amazing gigs. I got to play Exit/In with a pop artist and one of the Belmont University showcases. I toured half the country with my friends right before Covid.

Since the pandemic, I’ve been alone with just me and my guitar. Getting on stage by myself has been the scariest thing I’ve done so far, but it destroyed my stage anxieties. I could never play independently before; the stage fright was too intense even to try. Since last July, I’ve been playing out 2-3 nights a week while working full-time for Gibson guitars and live streaming on TikTok. It has made my life the busiest it’s ever been but going to sleep tired from all the work of doing what I love is all worth it.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I get in my own way most of the time. One of my biggest anxieties is that I didn’t try getting out on stage on my own sooner. The times I could have been motivating myself to go after what I wanted instead of putting it aside out of fear. I shouldn’t get on myself as hard as I do because everything has a time and place. I had to figure out a lot of things about myself and how to respect the people around me before I could do what I do now.

Playing shows and open mics around town while balancing a 9 to 5 requires a lot of time. You see a lot of folks at these places rushing in who is coming straight from their work, hoping to get a good spot on the sheet. I have so much respect for those people. The number of times I’ve walked into The Bowery Vault feeling burnt out from a busy workweek and having to switch mindsets for a crowd. When I’m not feeling good mentally, it shows up physically; I have to focus on dedicating time to myself and my art.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a finger-style guitarist and perform anywhere with a stage and a microphone. I write my own music where I give my best impression of a singer but also write music focused on the guitar. I try to use every part of the guitar when I write my instrumentals. Thinking of the whole guitar as an instrument opens you up to so many new ideas.

The best feeling I get is when I perform at the Fox and Locke or Tennessee Brew Works when you have an entire crowd in. They get just as excited as you do at those venues about the music.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I remember a barista at an airport telling me to “have a nice rest of my life” after handing me a flat white, and I still think about it. I remember them saying it so casually I couldn’t tell if it was sincere or sarcastic. I like it when the interactions with people break up the monotony of my day. The kinds of relationships that are minuscule in time but leave a dent in your psyche.

When you are comfortable with yourself, you have a license to be bizarre. If used in a positive way, that energy is so infectious it can lift up so many people. A great interaction, whether it’s a single person or a crowd, can lift you up from a bad day job for a week. It’s cool when you can share the niche things that make you happy, and people dig it.

Contact Info:

• Website: jocorso.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jo_corso/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jocorso/videos 
• The release date for my EP “Just Bring An Honest Face” on July 21st!

Image Credits
Katya Fine and Amanda McKenzie