Joel Henry Stein has released five original folk-rock albums featuring musicians from the bands of John Mayer, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, Duncan Sheik, Beth Orton, Rickie Lee Jones, Kris Kristofferson, and Edie Brickell, and his songs have received radio play nationwide. He has been nominated “Songwriter of the Year” in the Houston Press, been voted “Best Houston Songwriter” by Ticketmaster/Citysearch.com, been featured in Time magazine, received seven ASCAP awards for his songwriting, and been showcased by the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York. His songs have also appeared in TV shows such as “Future Car” and “Sun Devil Rewind.”

In addition to his own singer-songwriter material, Joel plays a unique blend of traditional Americana, bluegrass, African American spirituals, Appalachian gospel, classic country, and Hebrew psalms, prayers, and folk songs. Raised on recordings by folk legends such as Pete Seeger, the Kingston Trio, and Harry Belafonte, Joel’s repertoire of traditional folk songs spans hundreds of tunes from the U.S., Ireland, England, South America, the Caribbean, and Africa. His ability to engage both adults and children through song is a rare talent. Joel’s natural gift for song-leading resulted in a residency at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, where he led family sing-along concerts three times a day for two years.

Joel has performed at dozens of venues in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and elsewhere around the country, as well as at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, Topanga Earth Day Festival in Los Angeles, Big Horn Music Festival in Southern California, and the Strawberry Folk and Wine Festival in Napa.

As a composer, Joel has scored soundtracks for the Discovery channel, National Geographic, the Tony Award-winning Alley Theatre, various classical ensembles and soloists, and several modern dance companies in New York, LA, and Houston. Joel’s original musical, Election Day, sold out nearly every night when it ran at the American Theatre of Actors, an off-Broadway theater in New York.  His original rock opera, The Demise, previewed at the Roxy in West Hollywood in January, 2012.

From 2007-2012, Joel taught musicianship, music theory, and music technology at UCLA. He recently served on the songwriting faculty at the Colburn School of Music in downtown LA. Joel currently is CEO of Green Zebra Music, helping musicians with various facets of their music careers including recording, producing, songwriting, and placing their music in film and TV.