About
Blues, Skiffle, Calypso and Rockabilly with a creepy vaudeville twist - It’s music that makes people wanna shake their bones!
Blues, Skiffle, Calypso and Rockabilly with a creepy vaudeville twist… It’s music that makes people wanna shake their bones!
This trio are known for their unique live show, transporting the audience to a bygone era when witches and black magic were rife. Their songs tell stories of deals with the devil, demons in love, witchdoctors, zombies, ghosts, ghouls, journeys to the deepest jungles and other exotic adventures which are told using sweet melodies and syncopated sounds.
Jo Carley: Lead Vocals / Washboard / Mandolin / Percussion
Tim Carley: Battered Archtop Guitar / Kick / Rattlin’ Shoe / Backing Vocals
Stephane Spitz: Baritone Saxophone / Beat-up Double Bass / Backing Vocals
The music takes influence from early vaudeville blues acts such as Victoria Spivey via Cab Calloway, Wilmoth Houdini and Wanda Jackson, but adding a creepy and theatrical twist that echoes Dr John and Screamin Jay Hawkins.
Voodoo has found it’s way onto British shores and Jo Carley is the wild and dark demonic music-hall mistress sent to predict hell in a way to entertain and amaze you, telling tales of terror with old-timey flair. She’s joined by her songwriting partner and husband, the zombie-like Tim Carley, who drives the sound with blues-soaked rhythms on an old archtop guitar, kick drum, and rattling shoe. Completing the spell is multi-instrumentalist Stephane Spitz, shifting seamlessly between syncopated baritone sax leads and the pulsing heartbeat of the double bass.
They are a DIY band, constricted to the beat-up musical instruments they have to hand. This gives them the elements of Skiffle, Blues, Jazz, Rock n Roll, Psychobilly, Rockabilly and Gothabilly.
Jo and Tim left the rat race in 2013 to dedicate themselves to music. After a few years of busking around the UK and picking up odd gigs here and there they settled in a beach bungalow by the sea on the East Coast of England where they set up 'The Voodoo Shack', a studio to write and make music.
2023 saw them playing the main stage at Upton Blues Festival, Ealing Blues Festival and they were also invited to participate in the UK Blues Challenge by the UK Blues Federation. They joined the Rev Horton Heat and Demented are Go at the Psychobilly Freakout Festival in London.
2024 saw the band playing the Azkenna Festival in Spain (with the likes of Queens of The Stoneage, L7 and Sheryl Crow) and Rolmos Roots Rock Festival in Belgium with some of Europe's biggest Rockabilly acts. They supported Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band on their UK tour and joined Hillbilly Moon Explosion at their London show.
2025 saw them on tour in the UK, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands before joining The Meteors at the Pyschostock Festival (UK) and Errol Linton at Buxton Blues (UK) before returning to the studio to begin work on a series of singles and videos that will lead to a new album in 2026.
Jo Carley And The Old Dry Skulls live to play live shows and touring the UK and Europe every year.
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"Jo Carley & The Old Dry Skulls were a joy to behold. Rooted firmly in a bygone era when Voodoo and Black Magic were rife, the audience were all spellbound by the performance and its originality" - Adrian Blacklee - Blues Matters Magazine (UK)
"... a wonderfully enchanting show where magical songs were scattered." - thenextgig.nl (Netherlands)
"Tongue firmly-in-cheek they provide a full set of old school entertainment, a sideshow where vaudeville, blues and skiffle conspire to get their audiences to dance their asses off." – Hans Werkman / Here Comes The Flood (NL)
"... they've conjured up some delicious spells in their cauldron of verse, complete with wing of bat and tongue of snake" - Graham Munn / Blues In Britain Magazine
"Don’t fight it, let your soul be taken by the voodoo and soothed by these irresistible bluesy rockabilly rhythms. Turn to the dark-side, even if its just for half an hour or so…" - Neil Hodge / Louderthanwar
"With great lyrics and the combination of haunting ragtime blues they create a stupendously enjoyable jaunt into the darker recesses of voodoo, ... It's superb fun and a real pleasure to just indulge in its lyrics and music..." - Lee Powell / Vive Le Rock 2021
“...a steaming broth of cabaret, blues, ska, Vaudeville, voodoo and skiffle. Horror stories are the main course, with a side orders of sex, trouble, and all-night parties” - Hans Werksman - Here Comes The Flood (Netherlands)
“...riffs and rhythms, stomp and tap, crazy woman on vocals you find yourself waiting for her to cast a spell on you” - Alan Pearce - Blues Matters Magazine (UK)
"...medicine show huckster and old timey roots music. JCODS make deliciously devilish sounds. Something wicked coming this way. Highly recommended" - Folkcast (UK)
"That nailed it, good stuff. Left of field stomper. A wonderful fusion of trad, old timey, New Orleans Voodoo Queen" - Mike Harding / Mike Harding Folk Show (UK)
“There are dark warnings, powerful accusations, gritty observations and singular attitude... this is a musical heist that robs you of ordinary and replaces it with exceptional" - Folkwords (UK)
“Being scared has never been so much fun. Eyes closed, lights out, music on. Then tremble and shake and then laugh.” - Cultuurpakt (Belgium)
DISCOGRAPHY
2024 - ‘Live and Undead From Temperance’ - (LIVE ALBUM)
2022 - 'I'll Put My Voodoo On You' (ALBUM)
2020 - 'Voodoo Bones & Vaudeville Blues' (ALBUM)
2020 - 'The Zombie / The Jungle' (LOCKDOWN DIGITAL SINGLE)
2019 - 'Shake Them Rattlin' Bones' (ALBUM)
2017 - 'Them Old Bones' (ALBUM)
2014 - 'Rags and Bones' (EP)
