Joshua Sanders

myspace.com/joshuasandersacoustic

Josh’s songwriting shows the influences of his two longtime heroes, Bruce Springsteen and Townes van Zandt, and he has recently been receiving radio airplay on Americana/country radio (WICR 88.7 in Indianapolis) as well as internet radio (Terry Ann McClean’s Bluegrass Mix). Though a native of New York City, he became corrupted driving cross country on his way to college in California when he heard local bands covering “Take me back to Tulsa, I’m too Young to Marry” and “Mama Don’t Let You Babies Grow up to be Cowboys”. A summer spent hanging out in Santa Barbara and listening to country bands covering Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash tunes at the now defunct Sportsman Bar sealed the deal.

Josh’s musical background is primarily in jazz, blues and bluegrass. He studied voice in Los Angeles with Susan Strietwieser and in New York with Janie Barnett; guitar in Los Angeles with Gary Mandell of Boulevard Music and in New York with Glenn Alexander and Matt Smith. He is currently studying with New York City guitar legend Robin Greenstein and performs regularly at small venues in and around NYC and the Hudson Valley. Mr. Sanders’ early band experience was primarily electric blues, which he found was tremendously helpful in terms of putting all those lessons to some kind of practical use, as well as figuring out how to work with the bass and drums to form a singular sound. Since 1999 he has attended several songwriting circles here in New York, with a goal, rarely achieved, of writing one song every week.