The diversity of Josh Garrels’ music represents the textured patchwork of both the nature and nurture of his upbringing. The roads that draw the map of his life trace through various stops. At one time or another, Garrels has been a “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.”
As he reflects back on those experiences and contemplates the way forward, he leans into his faith, his family. His new album, Love & War & The Sea in Between, serves as the canvas onto which he sketches those thoughts in musical forms. Regardless of one’s own stance on matters of such import, the album is a gorgeously transcendent collection of songs. Garrels is the first to offer that people don’t have to agree with his beliefs to dig his tunes.
And he’s right. So much of pop music, these days, is overflowing with nothing more than ego and posturing. When an artist steps out of that mold to offer something truly of themselves, the impact is felt in ripples and waves. Anyone in search of music that speaks to their better angels, as it were, would do well to check out Love & War & The Sea in Between.
Writer Kelly McCartney