Joshua Josué, a Portland-based Chicano rock and R&B singer-songwriter, will celebrate the vinyl release of his latest album, Broadcast to the Surf Ballroom May 15, at WOW Hall. The album is a collection of unfinished demos and recordings by early rock pioneers Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Josué completed the demos by adding his own music and lyrics while rearranging what was already there. In 1959, Holly and Valens died in a plane crash, along with musician J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and the pilot, Roger Peterson. Josué grew up between Eugene and Los Angeles, and says the 1987 Valens biopic La Bamba and the Los Lobos soundtrack rendition of the title song were his gateway to these classic ’50s songwriters. Discovering Valens’ story, who was Mexican American, was the moment when Josué realized that “I wanted to play guitar, that I wanted to sing,” he says. The demos and song fragments existed in bootleg form for years, and Josué isn’t the first musician to give them a second life. When he was working on them, however, “rather than recreate the ’50s, I wanted something more modern — more influenced by rhythm and blues,” Josué says. “I grew up listening to ’90s punk rock.” While completing the record, “I started listening to 1970s CBGBs,” like the Ramones, he says. If Holly and Valens were alive today, Josué believes “they would have just been true to whatever made the song the best song it could be,” he says. Ben Rice & the PDX Hustle open the show.

Joshua Josué performs 7:30 pm Friday, May 15, at WOW Hall, 291 West 8th Avenue. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 day of show, $20 for preferred seating and available at WOWHall.org. The concert is all-ages.