Joe Kennedy is a great songwriter!

Van Cortlandt Parks’ melodic charm owes an obvious debt to the genius of songwriters like Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson and Paul Williams, but any of these great songwriters would tear up the IOU’s for a credit on songs as good as Melissa Age 4, Each and every day or Fishing. This is a fresh new album from great new songwriting talent.

Joe Kennedy spent the last few years playing guitar and piano on a World Tour with old college buddy Pete Yorn in support of Pete’s Columbia Records album: Musicforthemorningafter, during this time he also played keyboards for the vocal pop sensation Macy Gray.

In between the touring commitments Joe formed his own band: Happily Ever After with bassist Terry Borden, drummer Brian Sussman and guitarist Paul Gagliardi. (Gagliardi was replaced with Zak Schaffer in 2002), and started to record a clutch of self-penned songs that would eventually become Van Cortlandt Park. Some mixing wizardry by pal Jeff Garber (formerly of indie darlings National Skyline) finally whipped the album into shape. The debut album isn't written with any thematic continuity in mind, but all of the songs in one way or another are about an unattainable, elusive love.

Joe was born into a musical family in Yonkers, New York in 1972. Piano lessons at 6, guitar lessons at 10, Joe spent his youth overdosing on his Parents record collection of Byrds, Beatles, Beach Boys and Velvet Underground. At 18 years old, Joe enrolled at Syracuse University where he majored in Film and Television Production, but his heart was always in songwriting and music. After Graduating Joe took off on a trip around his home country. In 1998 he moved to Los Angeles where he became a fixture around the Silver Lake underground music community Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.