Aptos singer-songwriter Jo Coleman is on a roll. With a little help from friends, a familial tie and a happenstance meeting at a Santa Cruz coffee shop, she’s formed a band, released an album and is competing in an NPR competition, and that’s just in the last three months. All this with a band that made its first showing before a live audience in March.
With a guitar-driven sound and haunting, emotive vocals, Coleman, 27, delivers a tone that’s slightly indie, slightly folkie at the same time. Coleman contributes acoustic guitar and vocals while guitarist Zach Bailey, violinist Mia Reynolds and bassist Colton Cori round out the band. Drummer/brother-in-law Jackson Coleman is a welcome addition, although his commitment is momentary. “We’re hoping he can cruise out for some of the shows,” Jo Coleman says.
Up until now, the places Coleman (full name is Sacha Jo Henry Coleman) played were mostly in her hometown of Park City, Utah—coffee shops and community spaces where she had formed connections that she left behind to move to Santa Cruz.
“I feel like I’m just barely getting started,” she says. “I’ve been working on the Past Life album for the past two years,” Coleman says. “That project came together pretty naturally. It feels like it’s springboarding with a lot of other opportunities.”
In March, Coleman did an acoustic show at Parish Publick House Westside. The band also played to crowds at Shanty Shack and Steel Bonnet Brewery last month and at the Catalyst on April 5. Next up, Coleman plays the Crepe Place on April 18 (Good Friday).
Fronting a band after a relatively short time in Santa Cruz all started with an open mic performance at Santa Cruz Clay. It was the end of 2024, Coleman says: “Zach was at that open mic, and he was super stoked to meet someone who was putting out music.”
Bailey pulled in Cori (from Prunedale) and Reynolds, and Coleman’s brother-in-law completed the lineup.
In a Past Life
Coleman recorded Past Life in her home studio and released the songs through Bite the Mango Publishing, named after her dad’s website publishing company.
Past Life gives listeners an inward perspective to Coleman’s eventual acceptance of some pivotal events in her life. “One of my passions about music and creating art is creating experiences,” Coleman says. “I write songs that make me feel something. My hope is the songs I write and the spaces I play … that people can walk away feeling a little bit more connected to themselves or to each other.”
She draws lyrics from life experiences, including her move to Santa Cruz from Park City and her father’s death in 2017. “That’s a collection of songs that I wrote over the course of a few years during a pretty big transition in a lot of people’s lives,” Coleman says. “Milestones culminating with the move to Santa Cruz. It’s actually my processing of that past season.”
Her father, Jon Henry Coleman, was and still is a big motivation for her pursuit of music. “One of the big milestones that I mentioned was my dad passing away really suddenly,” Coleman said. “That was in 2017, eight years ago now. He was always my biggest music advocate and fan. I do feel like a big part of why I’m pursuing it still is to pay tribute to him. He always wanted me to put myself out there and keep creating.”
Past Life pays tribute to her late father through “Bridges,” a track with him playing along. “It’s a lullaby that he would play for us as kids,” Coleman says. “I dubbed over some of his own voice with some recordings that I found. That track means a lot to me for sure.”
Standout tracks “Good Intentions” and “Over the Falls” are part of a January session of videos as well. “‘Over the Falls’ is just chock full of surf references,” Coleman notes.
Improvising for NPR
In late 2024, Coleman submitted a live video of her song “Over the Falls” to NPR’s Tiny Desk contest at the urging of bassist Cori. “It ended up being a super fun process,” Coleman says. “When you have momentum with something, you just kind of ride it, I guess.”
Coleman filmed the video submission in her tiny apartment in Rio Del Mar. She had to improvise a laterally positioned surfboard for a desk. “Tiny Desk is one of the coolest things that NPR does,” Coleman says. “It’s just literally creating a platform for artists who want to submit a new song.”
Launched in 2008, Tiny Desk has become a huge draw for some of the world’s most famous musicians. According to NPR.org, the concert series has racked up billions of views on YouTube, with more than 1,000 artists who have stepped behind the Tiny Desk, including Taylor Swift and Alicia Keyes. These intimate, stripped-down performances offer major stars the chance to showcase their talents in ways their audience rarely gets to see.
Since 2014, Tiny Desk has also spotlighted up-and-coming artists with the Tiny Desk Contest, which invites unsigned musicians to perform original songs at a desk of their choosing.
“So there will eventually be a Tiny Desk contest winner announced in May, and that artist gets to play a Tiny Desk concert, and they go on tour too,” Coleman says.
A multi-instrumentalist, Campbell also is a pianist. “Guitar is actually a newer instrument for me,” she says. “I really started picking it up after my dad passed away.” And she was in a competitive percussion ensemble in high school. “That was my main group of instruments for a while,” she says.
Jo Coleman and her band play at the Crepe Place on April 18 at 8pm. Past Life is available on Spotify and all major streamers.
Editor’s note: On April 10, 2025, the name of Jo Coleman’s father was changed to correct an error.
