Screamin’ Joe LoFreso has been playing Hammond organs and singing professionally since the age of twelve, and was first booked on the road the very next week after graduating from Fresno High School.   Joe obtained his nickname Screamin’ in the 70’s while doing a studio session in San Francisco for the soul artist Percy B.B.  Hearing the young keyboardist's Hammond B-3 solo on one of the tracks, the producer said “that was screamin’.” Everyone involved in that project started calling him "Screamin’ Joe," a name that has stuck with him through the years. 

LoFreso’s first taste of success came in the form of a group called The Bushmen.  At the age of twelve after making the audition with the band, whose other members' ages ranged from eighteen to twenty years old, Joe started playing in and around the San Joaquin Valley of California.  The Bushmen's music is now distributed on the internet here and in Europe by Retro label, Sundazed Records.  The Bushmen later won a three day battle of the bands, which gave them the new name, The Seven-Up Action Boys.  The group then traveled promoting the Seven-Up bottling Company.

At the age of sixteen, Joe was the keyboardist and vocalist for an originals band called Canterbury Fair, who also have a CD through Sundazed Records. Canterbury Fair became an opening act for big names groups, and opened shows from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  It was at this time that Joe realized music would be his calling.

At the age of twenty-one, Joe changed directions and became the leader of a show group called the Velvet Touch, which performed in Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget and the Sahara.  The band then took their show on the road, and toured around the United States in various venues in Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Florida.  Joe has fond memories of that tour which included cities like St Louis, Green Bay, Miami, Key West, and  Ft. Lauderdale.  "I remember sleeping in hotels for four hundred nights straight before we returned home to California," recalls Joe. Once back in California, Joe wanted to get his creative juices flowing again in Rock & Roll. 

Since then, Screamin’Joe has played in Concert with Rock n Roll Hall of Famer, Chuck Berry, performed on stage with Steve Perry of Journey, has done studio work with Elvin Bishop, (Fooled Around and Fell In Love), and has even  worked with the Haggar Twins from the famous TV show,Hee- Haw.

Joe has also performed in opening acts throughout the years for Jefferson Starship, Iron Butterfly, Credence Clearwater Revival, The Standells, The Turtles, Santana, EL Chicano, Azteca, It’s a Beautiful Day, The Chambers Brothers, The Young Rascals, Greg Kihn, Johnny Rivers, Tracy Byrd, Neal McCoy, Jon Michael Montgomery, Colin Ray, and many others.

In the last ten years Joe has performed all over California in a Corporate Rock Show Band called The Crocodiles, and just recently played keyboards and sang with Foreigner Unauthroized, the number one Foreigner Tribute band in the country.

Joe has taken his years of knowledge and experience and has now applied it to a new solo career and is having a great time performing the kind of songs he has always loved and never had the opportunity to do before.

Someone recently asked Joe if he's had a rewarding career. Screamin' Joes Reply? “What do you mean had!

The fun is just starting!”