Check out the new single from Portland-based Chicano rocker Joshua Josué. In the intimate ‘Beneath the Sand’, Josué reflects on loss and takes us on an intimate journey across the desert. Josué says of the song: “It’s a deeply personal and cinematic meditation on grief, escape, and transformation along the highways of Central America. After losing someone very dear to me, I felt like disappearing. I wandered through Mexico and Central America for about a year, just trying to outrun the grief – and that’s where this song lives.” Reflecting his heartfelt, emotional writing and the song’s personal inspiration, Josué’s lyrics are tense and dramatic: “Motorcycle in the jungle, I’m going somewhere. Anyplace that I can run, a place to disappear,” transporting us into the isolation of the sun-baked desert.
Co-written with guitarist Ben Rice and GRAMMY-winning songwriter Roly Salley, known for his work with Chris Isaak Band and on Robert Plant & Alison Krauss’s ‘Killing the Blues’, ‘Beneath the Sand’ is moody, dust-filled americana, lost in the sparse desert of its sound. Mitch Marine’s (Dwight Yoakam) drums deliver a powerful beat, urging us on, while Joel Guzmán’s accordion and Ben Rice’s classy guitar solo add lighter, hopeful flourishes and Tex-Mex textures.
This is the title track from Josué’s brand new debut album, a collection inspired by real moments in Josué’s life that delivers an adventurous blend of americana, Latin folk and rock ‘n’ roll, inspired by the likes of John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Alejandro Escovedo, Richie Valens, and Los Lobos. Released in August 2025, “Beneath the Sand” benefits from some brilliant collaborators, including saxophonist Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and accordionist Joel Guzmán (Los Super Seven), who contributed impressive talents. Josué recalls: “I would sing parts that I wanted to add…and the two of them could walk into the recording booth and nail their parts in just one or two takes.”
Despite the aching themes on the album, the recording process was a joyful experience. Josué explains: “Myself and the band would wake up early and explore the desert in Joshua Tree National Park. Then we would go record for about 10 hours in the studio, then walk a short distance to Pat Kearns’ (the album’s engineer and producer, and owner of Goat Mountain Recording Studio) small desert cabin where his wife Susan would cook us dinner on the outside stove and we would stay up late writing music and drinking tequila and Modelo Especials.” That camaraderie is evident in the arrangements and performances on the album. Great writing, great musical atmosphere – be absorbed.
