Portland songwriter and guitarist Joshua Josué had a rough patch as a teenager in Eugene. Josué says as a high schooler here in town, he engaged in petty theft, which was resolved when a trusted adult told him if Josué left, he wouldn’t press charges. This meant Josué had to drop out of high school his senior year. (He’s since earned a degree in economics from Portland State University.) It sounds like a song. It also suits Josué’s songwriting style, blending traditional Central and South American folk styles like ranchera and mariachi with Desert Southwest punk-tinged rock ‘n’ roll, like Alejandro Escovedo or punk songwriter John Doe from X’s recent forays into country music — not traditional country by any measure, but indebted to the wide-open spaces and outlaw feel of the genre. Josué tells Eugene Weekly he doesn’t like his age to appear in print, adding that his high school experience in Eugene was long ago. But since then, he has ridden a motorcycle through South America like a young Che Guevara, collaborated with bluesman Curtis Salgado, and worked with the Old 97s and The Dwight Yoakam Band. Josué says Los Lobos’ 1987 “La Bamba” cover changed his life. His solo debut album, Beneath the Sand, comes out in June. Josué has a Mexican American heritage, and he says the record explores this “weird middle ground. Around my white friends, I’m always the Mexican, around my Mexican friends, I’m the gringo. The album is half English and Spanish,” he adds. “I try and present in my shows and music you don’t have to be anything. You don’t have to be Mexican. You don’t have to be white. You don’t have to be playing a role.” He performs his self-described Chicano-style rock ‘n’ roll in Eugene March 24 at John Henry’s, supporting heavy metal mariachi band Metalachi.
