Joy Orleans

  A native of New Orleans and stylistic heir to that city's rich cultural history, Joycelyn Owens goes by the professional name "Joy," which is not just a simplification but a pure distillation of the effect her voice has on an audience. And she's sung before enough audiences to know, backing up boogie and funk legend Dr.John and touring as the resident featured backup vocalist with NOLA soul-blues legend Walter "Wolfman" Washington and his Roadmasters. Stages she's graced include the New Orleans House of Blues and its legendary and uncompromising Maple Leaf Bar. In 2016, she released her debut EP, "Just Like That, "which made a big stir on the city's music scene with its expert blend of classic Southern Soul, modern gospel, and pop smarts.  Joy comes by her gospel chops naturally, having grown up singing in the Faithful Stars of Joy, directed by her father, Rev. Herbert Owens, but her instincts are solid in almost any style of music, whether she's taking on songs as diverse as Sheena Easton's hit "For Your Eyes Only" or Ruth Brown's R&B classic "5-10-15 Hours," which so transfixed discerning NOLA Jazz Fest audiences it made it to the official 2016 fest compilation. As a devotee of both Aretha Franklin and her goddaughter Whitney Houston, Joy is an expert at delivering pop professionalism with spiritual fervor.  Having tested the waters with her first EP, Joy is in the process of launching her solo career in earnest. Her first single "Miracle of Love" is currently making the rounds, written and produced by Grammy and Oscar-winning musician Donald Markowitz (best known for the Bill Medley/Jennifer Warnes smash "I've Had the Time of My Life" from the film "Dirty Dancing"). Her first full-length original solo album will be out in 2017, with a promo tour scheduled for May.  "Joy Owens is as approachable a blues-soul diva as Irma Thomas, with less pathos but more range, as warm yet uncompromising a voice as any of Malaco's '70s and '80s females.”

Re-enactors Joy 'Orleans' Owens, left, and her daughter, Mary Ann Owens, prepare to take the stage during a celebration at Armstrong Park in New Orleans Saturday, Now.9, 2019, the culmination of a two-day reenactment of the 1811 Slave Rebellion. A procession moved from the River Parishes to the French Quarter Saturday where re-enactors marched from the U.S Mint to Armstrong Park for a celebration.  -Staff Photo By Scott Threlkeld