RATE Records is pleased to announce the addition of new artist-member Joshua Lavender!
"My earliest clear memory is of our claustrophobic single-wide trailer. I'm sitting on the edge of the coffee table, dangling toes which don't quite touch the carpet, while Dad plays songs on the old Alvarez guitar he bought in the army: that old Johnny Horton song, 'The Battle of New Orleans,' some Kris Kristofferson, and John Prine ... lots of John Prine. I'm sure I pestered him to keep playing long after he was tired of it. I'm glad he did."
Hailing from rural Irwin County in the deep south of Georgia, Joshua grew up on country, 70's rock, and the sounds coming out of his father's guitar. A blonde-haired gangly kid, he spent most of his time in books until high school, when he picked up the Alvarez and started to practice rhythm in the cab of a '68 Ford Ranger rusting away in the backyard, where he could be loud. "I played Neil Young songs almost exclusively, and I played them hard and fast, and I didn't really pay attention to anything but the music," he recalls, and then confesses: "My wild strumming damn near wore a hole in Dad's guitar, right below the pickguard."
His father's exasperation over the damage did not shy Joshua away from music, though he chose to focus on poetry during his early college years. A friend introduced him to the bluegrass festival scene, and he began to jam frequently with his Strat-toting brother James. Then, while he was toughing out a bad case of writer's block, his father challenged him to write a song in an hour. The result (which took at least three hours) was "The Ballad of Black Jim," a dark folk rambler about life during the Great Depression inspired by the music of Gillian Welch and a novel by Cormac McCarthy.
"Black Jim was a turning point for me," Joshua observes. "I discovered I could write a song, and I discovered I could be poetic in a song. I've been wrapped up in songs -- cocooned in music -- ever since."
While "Black Jim" smacks of Welch à la Revelator, Joshua's influences are as far-flung as the stories, spiritual questions, and private reflections in his songs: the eerie blues of Skip James; early folkster Dylan; acoustic Neil Young; storytellers like Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, and Jim Croce; jazz infused by way of Paul Simon; and the experimental lo-fi of Iron & Wine. His songs revel in their fresh, evocative poetry even as they aspire to sound older than Methuselah.
Wrapping up his college life and working under the moniker Lavender & the Old Folk, Joshua is presently laying out plans to record Look Who's Come to Say Goodbye, a 12-song LP of original songs which will feature (we hope) several of the musical acquaintances he has made over the last two years. Meanwhile, he continues to street-perform and play coffeehouses and pubs.
"It's not a living," he says, "but it's a life."
Check out Joshua's music at http://www.myspace.com/cabinetofwonders and watch his show schedule for upcoming shows!