The Beagles with Joy

Stream & Save “Listen For A Moment" album: 

Listen For A Moment: Garage surf rocker with Rob's lead and Joy's best Ronnie Spector

Anew: Joy sings of taking ownership of her part of the pain of a past relationship

Yer Blues: Joy's passionate vocal gives tactile form to Lennon's ode to pain

Simple Things:  Celebrate the things we appreciate when the world quiets down

You Hurt Me: Rob's scream of pain & devotion,  placed for symmetry with Joy's blues

Mountain Walk:  Rootsy rocker with a Bay Area vibe opens into a space for Joy to flower

Righter Than Rain: Bluegrass duet that grounds you with a down home celebration of their love.  "The biggest ear worm on the album!" - DJ Lazlo

Our Story

Joy Okoye’s powerfully liberating vocals bring an urgent vibe to the musical explorations of The Beagles.  In her early years in Kansas, Joy’s vocal gifts moved congregants to feel the Holy Spirit - both as a soloist and with gospel and worship bands. Moving East, Joy explored new spiritual and secular worlds, weaving voice, improvisation and movement into communal experience. She earned the title  “Evangelist of the Dance Floor,” inspiring flowing throngs into explosions of expression then bringing them to a soft landing in a healing space. Beagles-founder Rob Freeman, saw the potential for Joy to reach a wider audience by merging her wide ranging vocal artistry into interaction with an improvisational electric and eclectic band. Joy’s spark ignites The Beagles on a journey beyond the harmony hooks, sultry seductions and power pop packaging of their Lon Van Eaton-produced debut Bed of Roses - to the passionate point where Blues met Blue-Eyed Soul. on Soul On Fire, their first album as The Beagles With Joy. 

In August 2026 The Beagles with Joy released their follow up album Listen For A Moment, which pushes their musical envelope in new directions, ranging from Surf sounds to Bluegrass and brings blues with a harder edge on its one cover, Joy's powerful adaptation of Yer Blues.  Famed NJ Rock journalist Constant Listener: Jim Testa, reviewing the album, celerates Joy's vocals as bringing “Sass, warmth, and passion (although she’s more jazz chanteuse than rock singer)” and loves the band as a whole, exclaiming “If you’re a young home owner turning into your parents, I’ve found your new favorite band!” Read his review at:

Three singles have dropped already and an album track has also been receiving regular airplay: 

Listen For A Moment - the title track and first single with Rob's driving lead vox – meets the desperation of abandonment with the swagger of faith in destiny while Joy raises the temperature with wordless emotive vox that channel Ronnie Spector, kicking off the tune and punctuating the breaks. 12 string lead licks, Farfisa driven choruses and a surf rock break down add to the urgency that always gets folks moving on this hit to be. This tune has been receiving regular airplay on Blow Up Radio - Where NJ Rock Lives.

Mountain Walk - their latest single - starts as as a bluesy rocker and takes a psychedelic turn on the extended mix. It channels a Bay Area vibe - the tale unfolding as Rob wrote it, descending on foot from the sunny peak of Mt Tamalpais into the fog at Stinson Beach 

Anew moves the band in a more introspective direction.  Joy's lyrics tell a tale of tells of a woman taking ownership of her contribution to the pain of a past relationship, freeing herself from those wounds to offer herself anew - as a cup of liquid to fill the senses, soothe the body, and cleanse the soul. Rob's music and The Beagles' arrangement create an expansive sonic journey with layers of acoustic, electric, lap steel and 12 string guitars drifting alongside grounded rhythms to create a sound that feels both intimate and wide open. This tune has been receiving regular airplay on Blow Up Radio - Where NJ Rock Lives.

Righter Than Rain while not released as a single, was the first track off the Listen For A Moment album to start getting regular airplay on Blow Up Radio - Where NJ Rock Lives. DJ Lazlo described it on air as “the biggest ear worm on the album and it  sticks in my head and it's still sticking in my head a week after listening to it for the first time! I love it!”

Read an interview by The Aquarian with Joy and Rob at: 

Check out the New Jersey Stage “Song Of The Week” accolades our singles have received: 

Read more about Anew in an article about an earlier live-to-video version of the song at: 

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