Josh Garrels
Josh Garrels (born Joshua Michael Garrels on September 25, 1980) is an Amer… Read Full Bio ↴Josh Garrels (born Joshua Michael Garrels on September 25, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter.
Garrels has been a lot of things: son of a hippie commune, skater boy,
suburban drug dealer, music/design student, coffee roaster, urban shepherd, and now nation- and globe-trotting minstrel of hope and healing.
He is also a beacon of light in a marketplace rife with artists who, whether wanting to acquire fame or just their next meals, have sold their souls to the not-so-almighty dollar and forsaken their first loves – the song – in the process. Garrels’ rogue ethic first led him to self-record, -produce, and -distribute a trio of early recordings, Stone Tree (2002), Underquiet (2003), and Over Oceans (2006), each a holy merging of sampled beats; plaintive, soulful vocals; and earnest acoustic strumming over unabashedly lo-fi production.
Despite fielding offers from major labels, Garrels retained a marked distrust for the recording industry (and it is just that) and, with the release of Over Oceans, formed his own little label that could: Small Voice Records. He also formed a humble but subtly mighty union with one Michelle Ramsdale, whose art has accompanied his aural musings on both Over Oceans and the subsequent Jacaranda album (2008).
It was the recording and producing of Jacaranda that proved a turning point for team Garrels. Housed in an old, rural mansion – a friend’s donated respite on an Indiana river in the woods – Josh and Michelle set to fashioning a home for themselves; crafting his best, tightest collection of songs to date; and creating a baby girl (née Heron Selah Garrels) all at once. The album itself became his most critically lauded so far, and the single “Don’t Wait For Me” was used in a scene on CBS drama “The Ghost Whisperer.”
Josh Garrels’ music is always equal parts confidence and vulnerability. That may seem a dichotomy – and then you hear him. Those trademark vibrant trills, lyricism chock-full of an earthy gusto and the search for God both, and the tapping and slapping against his trusty homemade acoustic axe – the sum of it is an amalgam of sound like precious few before or beside him.
“Fight or flight” is simplistic phrasing for the choice we often have in life’s trying situations. In his gritty formative years the former there was Josh Garrels’ strategy, but since his coming of age (and of belief) and his entrance into bona fide adulthood, within and without, his modus operandi has become flight. Flight as in lift-off, ascension. Rising above. Yea, the name of his young daughter is shared with a bird. Flight is a fixture, and wings a metaphor, in both the love story that Josh and Michelle grew and in the visual and musical arts that both have cultivated.
“My hope is to record at least an album a year for many years to come,” Garrels says, “probably continuing to record myself with my own home studio.” To borrow another well-worn axiom: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. A minimalist website and album sales at live shows eventually thrust Josh Garrels into the arena where he now resides.
Garrels has always sought to inject his ears and his mind with a wide swath of influences. Early on it was Cat Stevens and De La Soul, and then those gave way to honchos of east-coast hip-hop the likes of the Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest. The mellowing – and yet, ironically, the lionizing – of his head, heart, and soul are evident in his budding young-adult affinities for the sounds of Bob Dylan and Digable Planets, Ben Harper and Gustavo Santaolalla.
Despite being his cherished mentors of music, none of these established artists would make Garrels blink were he to meet them. “In a media-saturated pop culture society where ‘stars’ are the royalty to be worshipped or fawned over, I believe the true role of artists is to serve others with their creations, “ Garrels says. “That means to draw people to fullness of life through revelation, longing, breakthroughs, simple beauty, and unpretentious truths. Artists help people see the obvious, the heart of the matter, and from this regained perspective people become more fully human. So much art these days has people focusing on an unattainable fantasy, lusting over what they'll never have unless they take it by force or by way of money or libido. This is all candy, and candy can't make a man healthy.”
Indeed, and “candy” is the last word for describing Josh Garrels, his life and his tunesmithing. He harmonizes and he freestyles, apt to lift a glitch beat or an accordion to the song at hand, whatever it demands. His latest, Lost Animals (2009), features a sonic quilt of singles, Jacaranda B-sides, soundtrack work, and collaborations. Originally intended as an EP, it outgrew those trappings and emerged a full-length weighing in at 10 songs.
As outgrowing goes, native Michigander Garrels and his family shed their initial digs in Indianapolis, that urban epicenter of gorgeous, golden cornfields, and took to North Carolina for a year to grieve with dear ones a death in the clan. Heartfelt time spent in Carolina bowed out gracefully to their nascent residence in Portland, Oregon, specifically the diverse and progressive artists’ haven that is the Mississippi/Alberta district.
For all the beats and world instruments and innovative guitar work, it will always be about the words with Josh Garrels. His stuff is drenched in musings that encompass time-worn theology and pastoral wonderment, that delight in the fauna of this world and a faith in another still to come. “Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.” So said the writer C. S. Lewis, and so echo the visceral yearnings, sometimes verbose yet often as unintelligible as the melodies on some of his best tracks, that make up this well-traveled troubadour’s trunk full of songs.
Garrels has been a lot of things: son of a hippie commune, skater boy,
suburban drug dealer, music/design student, coffee roaster, urban shepherd, and now nation- and globe-trotting minstrel of hope and healing.
He is also a beacon of light in a marketplace rife with artists who, whether wanting to acquire fame or just their next meals, have sold their souls to the not-so-almighty dollar and forsaken their first loves – the song – in the process. Garrels’ rogue ethic first led him to self-record, -produce, and -distribute a trio of early recordings, Stone Tree (2002), Underquiet (2003), and Over Oceans (2006), each a holy merging of sampled beats; plaintive, soulful vocals; and earnest acoustic strumming over unabashedly lo-fi production.
Despite fielding offers from major labels, Garrels retained a marked distrust for the recording industry (and it is just that) and, with the release of Over Oceans, formed his own little label that could: Small Voice Records. He also formed a humble but subtly mighty union with one Michelle Ramsdale, whose art has accompanied his aural musings on both Over Oceans and the subsequent Jacaranda album (2008).
It was the recording and producing of Jacaranda that proved a turning point for team Garrels. Housed in an old, rural mansion – a friend’s donated respite on an Indiana river in the woods – Josh and Michelle set to fashioning a home for themselves; crafting his best, tightest collection of songs to date; and creating a baby girl (née Heron Selah Garrels) all at once. The album itself became his most critically lauded so far, and the single “Don’t Wait For Me” was used in a scene on CBS drama “The Ghost Whisperer.”
Josh Garrels’ music is always equal parts confidence and vulnerability. That may seem a dichotomy – and then you hear him. Those trademark vibrant trills, lyricism chock-full of an earthy gusto and the search for God both, and the tapping and slapping against his trusty homemade acoustic axe – the sum of it is an amalgam of sound like precious few before or beside him.
“Fight or flight” is simplistic phrasing for the choice we often have in life’s trying situations. In his gritty formative years the former there was Josh Garrels’ strategy, but since his coming of age (and of belief) and his entrance into bona fide adulthood, within and without, his modus operandi has become flight. Flight as in lift-off, ascension. Rising above. Yea, the name of his young daughter is shared with a bird. Flight is a fixture, and wings a metaphor, in both the love story that Josh and Michelle grew and in the visual and musical arts that both have cultivated.
“My hope is to record at least an album a year for many years to come,” Garrels says, “probably continuing to record myself with my own home studio.” To borrow another well-worn axiom: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. A minimalist website and album sales at live shows eventually thrust Josh Garrels into the arena where he now resides.
Garrels has always sought to inject his ears and his mind with a wide swath of influences. Early on it was Cat Stevens and De La Soul, and then those gave way to honchos of east-coast hip-hop the likes of the Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest. The mellowing – and yet, ironically, the lionizing – of his head, heart, and soul are evident in his budding young-adult affinities for the sounds of Bob Dylan and Digable Planets, Ben Harper and Gustavo Santaolalla.
Despite being his cherished mentors of music, none of these established artists would make Garrels blink were he to meet them. “In a media-saturated pop culture society where ‘stars’ are the royalty to be worshipped or fawned over, I believe the true role of artists is to serve others with their creations, “ Garrels says. “That means to draw people to fullness of life through revelation, longing, breakthroughs, simple beauty, and unpretentious truths. Artists help people see the obvious, the heart of the matter, and from this regained perspective people become more fully human. So much art these days has people focusing on an unattainable fantasy, lusting over what they'll never have unless they take it by force or by way of money or libido. This is all candy, and candy can't make a man healthy.”
Indeed, and “candy” is the last word for describing Josh Garrels, his life and his tunesmithing. He harmonizes and he freestyles, apt to lift a glitch beat or an accordion to the song at hand, whatever it demands. His latest, Lost Animals (2009), features a sonic quilt of singles, Jacaranda B-sides, soundtrack work, and collaborations. Originally intended as an EP, it outgrew those trappings and emerged a full-length weighing in at 10 songs.
As outgrowing goes, native Michigander Garrels and his family shed their initial digs in Indianapolis, that urban epicenter of gorgeous, golden cornfields, and took to North Carolina for a year to grieve with dear ones a death in the clan. Heartfelt time spent in Carolina bowed out gracefully to their nascent residence in Portland, Oregon, specifically the diverse and progressive artists’ haven that is the Mississippi/Alberta district.
For all the beats and world instruments and innovative guitar work, it will always be about the words with Josh Garrels. His stuff is drenched in musings that encompass time-worn theology and pastoral wonderment, that delight in the fauna of this world and a faith in another still to come. “Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.” So said the writer C. S. Lewis, and so echo the visceral yearnings, sometimes verbose yet often as unintelligible as the melodies on some of his best tracks, that make up this well-traveled troubadour’s trunk full of songs.
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Josh Garrels Lyrics
107 This love endures forever Let the redeemed of the…
A Long Way There's a time in our lives To return, sacrifice Wild gras…
All Creatures All creatures of our God and King Lift up…
Always Be And I will always be And I will sing for thee All…
Anchor of My Soul I have seen enough to know that your loves the only anchor…
Answered I am poured out like water And my bones are…
At the Table I went the ways of wayward winds In a world of…
Be Set Free Original music for the surf film "Walking On Water". Take…
Benediction May all of your days shine brightly And your nights…
Beyond the Blue Stand on the shores of a site unseen The…
Blessed Is He You will not see me Again until you can…
Born Again I came into the world, into the wild No place for…
Bread & Wine I was wrong, everybody needs someone, to hold on …
Break Bread Hear a voice echo soft From a place where…
Children of the Earth Children of the earth Once dust but now alive…
Children's Song Down on my knees, praying please have mercy now Christ my…
Colors Lift up your shoulders child Breathe in Carry the weight o…
Community Song In the end you'll find Yourself among knee length grasses…
Creation Song We can feel creation groan It’s crying out for…
Creation Song (live) We can feel creation groan It’s crying out for God Every nig…
Decision Brother come on open up you eyes Quit believing…
Desert Father When we were young We walked where we wanted to…
Don't Wait For Me As heard on CBS's "Ghost Whisperer". Please don't wait fo…
Ending Children run around Looking for the sound Buried undergr…
Farther Along Farther along we’ll know all about it Farther along…
Fire by Night We are one, every daughter and son With our…
Flood Waters Higher than the yonder mountain and deeper than the sea…
For You Got so much I’m dying to tell you But…
Freedom Mhmm... yea! Mhmm... ey-yeah-ey yeah yeah yeah mm... mhmm Mh…
Freedom (live) Mhmm... Mhmm... yea! Mhmm... ey-yeah-ey yeah yeah yeah mm...…
going home I'm going home She's going home We're going home Goi…
Good Friday Broken wing, forgotten dream, shattered thing That a mans…
Heaven's Knife Take my hand I won't let go We've waited so long And al…
Hiding Place Somewhere out there Can anybody hear my prayer Save me From …
His Wings Oh my soul, sing my soul You've been rescued by the…
Home At Last Who is there at the end of lonesome roads? All of…
Indiana Sky Let’s dance upon our bare feet Underneath sycamore tree…
Jacaranda Tree Sitting on porches Since Friday while the sky …
Just Doin' Your Thing I was a poor boy, Papa, when you decided you…
Leviathan All my love, all I've done Falls apart, is undone Built a…
Little Blue Who is like my child Who’s so lovely and…
mercy triumph You ever walk a mile with a man Got these sticks…
Million Miles Feel the wind blow, through the window, I know, …
Morning Light There's a place, a garden for the young To laugh and…
Moving Along I keep on movin' along Times are changing but I sing…
My Child Hear a voice echo soft From a place where…
Never Have I Found I walked under the blood red moon At night…
New Day It's a new day, things are gonna change It's a new…
Over Oceans I remember when all the trees knew your name …
Pilot Me I will arise and follow you over Savior please,…
Rabbit & The Bear Run, run so fast Over fields and grass …
Rainbow Somewhere over the rainbow In a world without end…
Rejoice & Lament Learn this lesson well, my friend There’s a time…
Restless Ones Restless soul, turning leaf Tomorrows unknown mysteries …
Restless Ones (live) Restless soul, turning leaf Tomorrows unknown mysteries I'm …
Revelator Had a dream I was alone A vast expanse of…
Rise I hung my head, for the last time In…
Season Of Rain Praise the Lord, when it’s all gone wrong Everything…
Shall Not Walk Alone And I shall not walk alone And I shall not walk…
SISU SISU means "stubborn guts" in the Finnish language. By th…
Sleeper Wake up O sleeper and raise your head Lord's gonna…
Slip Away Hold on, before I slip away The flames gone,…
Songbird Sweet songbird singing in the morning hour Waking me…
Sweet River Roll Sweet river roll over me Let my body find…
Testify I used to steal from me father, spit in the…
The Arrow An arrow is stuck between my ribs And I pray to…
The Original Spacefan You left on a Saturday In her hands you…
The Resistance I was born into a system constructed for failure …
The Walk Hard lonesome nights Wake to morning lights Every man tr…
Thy Will Be Done I love you, Jesus I thank You for what You've done In…
Train Song Shame on you, shame on me Lord he took…
Ulysses I’m holding on to the hope that one day this…
What Wondrous Love Is This What wondrous love is this, Oh my soul, oh my soul? What…
White Owl When the night comes, and you don’t know which…
Words Remain Heaven and the earth will pass away But your…
YHWH Holy, holy, holy is the lamb Almighty, almighty, almighty…
Zion & Babylon Oh great mammon of form and function Careless consumerist…