Christa Joy is the band leader of the Western Massachusetts based, “Christa Joy and the Honeybees.” Original Americana with a classic country flair, the group includes Lisa Marie Ellingsen (lead guitar), Tim Bowles (pedal steel), Jason Smith (drums) and Tom LeBeau (bass). The band’s recently self-titled release Christa Joy and the Honeybees (2024), paints a versatile picture of the group’s talents—ranging from kitschy humorous gems like “God Gave Me Two Babies” and “Omens,” to emotional ballads like “Time and Luck” and the sparser indie flavor of “Again and Again.” Also included on the project, Producer Grant Wicks arranged a countrified cover of Pixies “Here Comes Your Man,” a shout out to local hero Black Francis.
Joy has released five full length albums, You and I Know (2025), Christa Joy and the Honeybees (2024), Get On, Heart! (2019), Daughter of Your Lost Art (2014), and Ready or Not (2012). She. has also released a handful of singles in recent years, including The Gift of Your Love at Christmas (2024) and Looking in the Rearview (2025). The band is slated to record the remaining songs of a new album in 2026.
Joy is known for her strong sense of melody, resonant storytelling, and charming sincerity. She has played at many notable New England venues, including the Parlor Room, the Iron Horse and Club Passim. She has opened for some of her heroines, including The Sweetback Sisters, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Meg Hutchinson, Loudon Wainwright III, and Antje Duvekot. Perhaps more importantly, she is a Mom of three and a Forest Kindergarten Teacher in Western Massachusetts. You can follow her more closely on Substack and IG as Momsongwriter.
Originally from rural Massachusetts, Christa grew up in a teacher preacher truck-driving kind of family. Joy spent the earliest years of her songwriting telling stories of her rural upbringing, the illness and death of her mother, and the brokenhearted years that followed this loss. Impermanence, separation, and the fragility of human life were themes that figured prominently in her early collections of songs. These themes continued in her recent 2025 release, You and I Know, which delivered a collection of songs following the death of her brother, Nicholas. These themes are foundational to Joy’s depth and growth as a writer through these past twenty years. Her band invites other sides of her writing and musicality, embracing the experience of writing for sheer delight, whimsy, synchronicity, irony and humor.