Jo Carroll Pierce

Jo Carol Pierce (July 20, 1944 – December 2, 2022) was an American singer-songwriter, playwright, and screenwriter who lived in Austin, Texas, from 1970. In 1993, Karen Schoemer described Pierce as "an official local hero in her adopted hometown." Pierce was born in Wellington, Texas, on July 20, 1944. She grew up in Lubbock, where she attended high school with Joe Ely and Butch Hancock. She became a songwriter in the 1980s in response to encouragement from Ely and David Halley. In 1993, her fellow musician Austinites produced the compilation album Across the Great Divide: Songs of Jo Carol Pierce, consisting of 19 interpretations of her songs. In addition to her albums, she has also written multiple cabaret plays, including In the West and Bad Girls Upset by the Truth, the latter of which is a semi-autobiographical musical comedy. It premiered at SXSW in March 1993 and was later adapted into her first solo album of the same name, which was released in 1996. In 2008, she self-released her second solo album, Dog of Love.