FORMER HIGH SCHOOL LITERATURE TEACHER JOE FLETCHER’S ROOTS MUSIC ELECTIVE KEEPS THE CIRCLE GOING

DEER TICK ANNOUNCES FLETCHER SUPPORT SLOT IN NYC DECEMBER 28 AS ‘YOU’VE GOT THE WRONG MAN’ GATHERS STEAM

Joe Fletcher was not always a fast-rising Americana music artist and veteran of two Newport Folk Fests. For ten years, he was Mr. Fletcher, English teacher at Foxborough Regional Charter School in southeastern Massachusetts. Already playing in a band and reading deeply on roots music, he also taught an elective course on the subject on the subject for three years.

In other news, Deer Tick has announced its annual New Years Eve residency at the Brooklyn Bowl and Joe Fletcher will open the December 28 show. Outlets such as Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Esquire have raved about ‘You’ve Got The Wrong Man,’ which premiered on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and is featured on a Spotify-curated playlist. The Entertainment Weekly full album stream is here.

Fletcher says, “We'd start each year by watching PBS’ American Roots Music documentary series to prime them for the variety of styles we'd be talking about. It was important to me to show the lineage of Howlin’ Wolf to Led Zeppelin to the White Stripes. We used a large timeline to mark the careers of Hank Williams versus that of Skip James to get perspective on what was going on in what part of the country at the same exact time. Jack White was always a great modern example to tie Blind Willie McTell, Led Zeppelin, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan all together.

For two of the years, they did a concert at year’s end. Fletcher recalls, “We had kids fighting over who would get to do Hank Williams or Robert Johnson songs. That's when I really knew I'd done my job."

Several students have taken up the mantle of roots music champions. Eric George lives in Burlington, VT and plays harmonica, guitar, banjo, and fiddle. Fletcher remembers, “He got really good really fast. I had him in 10th and 11th grade. He was the student ringleader. He's told me this class was a pivotal musical experience for him. He’s an incredible musician and was my guitar tech at Newport 2012.” George is in the process of recording his first album right now and has a tattoo in honor of the class on his arm. In fact, he kickstarted a Newport Folk afterparty with only his harmonica, voice, and boot.

For Fletcher, his love of literature has informed his sense of songwriting. He simply says, “All of these things go hand-in-hand.”