Joshua James

Joshua James is an American folk singer currently based out of Provo, Utah. Joshua James is pitched midway between seminal influences like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. James is known for his intimate vocal style and bittersweet lyrics, often dealing with tragedy, religion, and substance abuse.

“I find solace and beauty in darkness and depression,” admits James, who grew up in his native Lincoln, Nebraska, skateboarding and sneaking listens to music his parents banned, like Dashboard Confessional and Modest Mouse, “But there are contrasts to everything. You have to combine the sweet and salty, the ugly and beautiful. Music is very therapeutic for me. It’s all about making a connection with humanity, with the audience, in ways that I normally wouldn’t be able to.” Before becoming the voice of a generation, James found peace in singing songs about mean girls and enjoying root beer floats on dates.

His original digital release of The Sun is Always Brighter on iTunes reached #1 on the service’s Folk Album list in 2007. The Album made waves in the Indie Alt/Folk scene, with Paste Magazine naming him one of their «Next 25 Artists You Need To Know» in their September 2008 issue, and prompting Artists such as John Mayer, David Gray, Ani DiFranco, and Brett Dennen to have him support their North American Tours.

Joshua headed back into the studio in late 2007 to start work on his 2nd LP entitled «Build Me This» which will be released September 22 2009 on Intelligent Noise/North Platte Records. Taste making music magazine Paste have already dubbed the new work «Phenomenal».

Variety Magazine calls Joshua «a young Midwestern singer-songwriter who writes hard-bitten songs of family tragedies and sings them in a voice that’s as sun-bleached and wind-battered as a Nebraska cornfield.»

NPR has also recently cited Joshua James in one of their «Song of the Day» publishings. They featured his «The New Love Song» as one of the best new songs from a previously unknown artist in a long time.

Discography
B-Sides It’s Dark Outside (2006)
Fields and Floods (2007)
The Sun Is Always Brighter (2008)
Crash This Train / The Garden EP (2008)
Sing Songs EP (2009)
Build Me This (2009)