The Beagles with Joy - Soul On Fire (Love Songs For Grown Ups . . . ) (2025) [Hi-Res]

Joy Okoye’s powerfully liberating vocals bring an urgent vibe to the musical explorations of Princeton-based The Beagles. In her early years in Kansas, Joy’s vocal gifts moved congregants to feel the Holy Spirit – both as a soloist and with gospel / worship bands.

Moving East, Joy explored new spiritual and secular worlds and found her calling as a dance leader, improvising rhythmic evocations to movement and channeling soothing vocal vibrations. In the JourneyDance community, Joy became the ’Evangelist of the Dance Floor,’ inspiring flowing throngs into explosions of expression, then bringing them to a soft landing in a healing space.

Beagles founder Rob Freeman saw the potential for Joy to reach a wider audience by merging her wide-ranging vocal artistry into interaction with an improvisational electric and eclectic band. Joy’s spark ignites The Beagles on a journey beyond the harmony hooks, sultry seductions and power pop packaging of their Lon Van Eaton-produced 2018 debut Bed of Roses to the passionate point where blues meets blue-eyed soul on the recently released follow-up/departure Soul on Fire (Songs for Grownups), the debut of The Beagles with Joy.

The new album charts lessons learned over the course of Joy and Rob’s relationship with one another, manifesting music from their empathic bond. In support of it, The Beagles with Joy – also lap steel guitarist John Mazzeo, Hammond organist Jay Posipanko, bassist Da Nickster, and drummer David Ross – will headline the fifth annual RainbowMoon Festival on September 6 at Snipes Farm in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. Their set will include a special DiscoFunk Machine set that taps into Joy’s dance roots, as will be the case on September 13 at Kumo 27 in the Kendall Park section of South Brunswick. The Beagles with Joy also will play October 11 at Lawrenceville Main Street’s Fall Arts Fest.