Sometimes you just can’t tell
By Diane Dryden

If you were to see Joe Weiss in the local grocery store with his wife Lee, you’d never guess what he does for a living, and what he does for fun.

Joe grew up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and spent a great deal of time at his family’s lake cottage. His uncle and grandfather taught him to love the outdoors and to love fishing. A Spooner resident for 22 years, he hunts and fishes and wears jeans most days. He’s a father of two, with a daughter in college and a son in the Navy stationed in Hawaii that’s married with two kids of his own. His wife is a nurse in both Rice Lake and Spooner.

His picture is at the Ace Hardware store, Economart and Northwind Book and Fiber in town. And it’s on the cover of his C.D., LIVING IN THE NORTH COUNTRY. An album of styles ranging from the blues of “Outta Stater Blues” to several rock and roll numbers, some true country sounding songs and probably his most famous “Proud And Loyal Packer Fans” that has a definite polka beat.

In fact, it was the Packer song that helped make him known as a musician. In 1996 it received a great deal of play across the whole state of Wisconsin when the Packers were in their prime.

“I get season tickets every year for the Packers, so you can tell I’m serious about our team. I even had a part in the documentary film made about the Packers. It was filmed at Lambeau Field and was called OUR PACK. It ran an hour and a half, and was really good.”

Dick Kaner of WJMC radio station in Rice Lake has been known to play Joe’s songs and deer hunting song, “Rockin’ Chair” is always a big hit. Dave Carlson’s TV 13 outdoor show featured Joe’s “Wisconsin Outdoors” song and now John Myrhe uses it on his radio show that broadcasts out of Hayward on 101.1 FM on Sunday mornings at 9 a.m.

“It’s a lot of fun, but very expensive to make a CD. And if it wasn’t for Shannon Fout and his talented pool of musicians in Stone Lake, the album would never have came together. But it was really something when it did.

I had the sound in my head of what it should be like and when it was all put together, it was exactly when I had in mind. It’s like painting a picture, the stuff in your head comes out in a tangible way. There’s something a moment in time that needs to be preserved and I like to make up songs about what I enjoy. I guess you could say that a lot of my songs are more ballads than anything else. Just stories set to music.”

So, deer stand, a fishing boat or a Packer game inspired him. This would lead you to believe that he’s just hanging around making music with his guitar. Ah contraire, in real life he’s been a pilot for the DNR, a special warden in the 1980’s (hence the song titled “The Ones’s Wearing Gray”) and now for the past 13 years, has been flying out of the Minneapolis Airport to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in order to pilot with American Airlines. He’s currently flying overseas flights to Japan.

It’s an odd mix that seem to work well for Joe, from the elite life in the city, to his beautiful country home at the end of the dirt road.

“I’m living where I want to be, doing what I want to do. People still need wild places to find themselves. I don’t plan to make another CD or write anymore songs. But you never know when the inspiration will hit. Maybe it’s taking a hook out of a fish’s mouth, maybe it’s a thought at the deer stand, maby this year if the Packers…”