Portland, Oregon-based singer/songwriter Joshua Josué is a Chicano Rock and Americana artist in the tradition of Hermanos Gutiérrez, Los Lobos, and Enrique Bunbury. He also collaborates with a number of other musical projects, including Metalachi, Members of Los Lobos, Teddy Thompson, The Old 97’s, and more. Recent singles from Josué include “Palabras De Amor”, “El Gringo Mariachi”, and “Darkness on Hwy 51”.
We’re very pleased to premier his new song “She Is Guadalajara” here today at Wildfire Music + News. The track will arrive digitally this week, on August 8th, 2024.
Josué creates a heart-on-your-sleeve love song with “She Is Guadalajara”, but with a significant twist–that his love is more powerful and far more independent than one human being can hope to encompass, since she is the heart of a very special city known as “The City of Roses.” For that reason, Josué appears as a haunted figure, still in love with a place, a home, and a companion of great beauty, but one who he is separated from for reasons even he can’t quite understand. There’s a long poetic and musical traditions of personifying cities, countries, and even cultures as a loved one, but what Josué leaves unsaid leaves room for mystery, too, which makes the song most effective.
Musically, the song has an innovative sense of navigating between old, traditional music, like marches and waltzes, particularly in its cadence and percussion, but Josué also brings in a very modern electric guitar with a gritty Rock ‘n Roll feel to spell out mariachi accents. The song could easily be filled with more layers of sound, but Josué keeps it spare to focus on this sparse feeling of a central speaker who feels alone, but experiences the dreamy presence of his far-away beloved city.
Guadalajara continues to play the role of a great lady in the song, one who “plays for keeps” and therefore won’t totally release him from her grasp, even though he goes away. However, her most admirable quality is also her most elusive, that “she will always be free.” That could mean free from oppression, or it could mean free from exclusive relationships. Either way, it preserves her beauty and distance while the speaker cannot escape his lingering emotions. Josué conjures a spell for audiences that allows them to experience the majesty of a special place and her enchanting, seemingly eternal, and yet heart-wrenching qualities.
Joshua Josué says:
To fall in love with something as timeless as ‘The City of Roses’ only to walk away from her is nothing short of heartbreaking. I wanted to create something that would really connect with people on a deep level. I think ‘She is Guadalajara’ captures the essence of what it means to love and to feel loss, and I hope listeners find solace and comfort in the music.
Josué got his start fronting the band Los Perros Olvidados and went on music tours by motorcycle throughout Latin America. Later on, he began opening for regional and national acts such as Teddy Thompson and Metalchi in Portland, Oregon and headlining shows on the West Coast.
Josué likes to keep his live shows entertaining by getting the audience dancing and telling stories of “lonely desert highway heartbreak, lost love in small Latin American towns, and tequila-fueled tales” of his days riding with Mexican motorcycle clubs.
Joshua Josué also has a number of shows coming up in August and beyond in the Portland, Oregon area.
