Joe Firstman has balanced multiple roles as a singer, songwriter, and leader of a late-night television band throughout his professional life. During the 1990s the Charlotte, North Carolina native established himself as a regular presence on the area’s college circuit through his group Firstman, which had begun under the name Isabel Sol. After several years of opening for national touring artists who passed through the region, Firstman chose to pursue wider recognition and relocated to Hollywood in 2001. Once on the West Coast he formed a new band that shared his name and began performing regularly while making connections with music-industry figures. The strategy succeeded in 2003 when Atlantic Records offered him a recording contract. Later that same year his first full-length album, The War of Women, appeared. Following extensive national tours alongside Sheryl Crow, Jason Mraz, and Willie Nelson, Firstman left Atlantic in 2005 to serve as bandleader for NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly. The television position did not halt his recording activity; he issued the EP Live at the Sandbox in 2006 and continued issuing independent albums, including DrAMA! in 2007 and Fell Swoops in 2008. When NBC restructured Last Call in 2009, Firstman lost the position. He then moved from Hollywood to the coastal community of El Porto, where he concentrated once more on songwriting and completed the 2010 album El Porto, which appeared on his own Firstman Music label.
