Josef Woodard is a veteran journalist-critic-author (writing for the Los Angeles Times for 25 years), is an ongoing contributor to DownBeat magazine, and has written for many other music publications, including Rolling Stone, The Strad, and Chamber Music, as well as the Santa Barbara Independent in his hometown. In addition to penning numerous album liner notes, he won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for jazz writing and has published two jazz books, on Charles Lloyd and on Charlie Haden, for Silman-James Press, and published his debut novel, Ladies Who Lunch, in 2020. As an active musician/guitarist/composer, he has released many albums on the Household Ink Records label. Among other things, he is also fond of jazz festival-ing and diner grub.