"This is Rockford in the '80's! Rockford hair on Rockford ladies!"
Let's go back to a time and place where rust orange was the color of the future, shining with optimism in the nonsensical "sculpture" that declared itself our "symbol." Where every new municipal building looked like a bad knock-off of Frank Lloyd Wright, and even the doctor's office had a circular bubble window. When the past was being forgotten and the future embraced. When Ronald Reagan was being re-elected. Where families gathered at Christmas. Where families sang Christmas carols in trailer parks and sang at clinics instead of shooting at them. Where kids went swimming with the kids at the swim club or the country club. Where Christian schools taught kids to love Jesus. Where kids played with other kids in their neighborhood (even if one kid pushed the other off the slide and broke his arm). Where kids played little league and dreamed of pitching for the Cubs. When Jackson Browne and Dire Straits were the coolest. Where the summer dusk lasts forever and the winter is warm with hot chocolate.
This is the Rockford Movie.
This is "The Rockford Files."
Josh Caress spent the first ten years of his life in the city of Rockford, Illinois, in the 1980's. He grew up with parents who loved each other, an older brother to play baseball with, as well as a little sister and little brother. They lived in a modest house in a safe neighborhood where Josh could ride his bike and play with other kids. His dad sold insurance and his mom stayed home, folding laundry while they watched Cubs games together. They went to the pool in the summer and went sledding and caroling in the winter. Everything was as it should be, everything was safe. Then everything changed.
"The Rockford Files," Josh's newest record, is a lot of different things. It is an album about suburban America in a time of confidence. It is an album about childhood. It is an album about our ideas of home and our yearning to be welcomed. It is an album of nostalgia and folklore. It is an album about innocence and where it goes. It is about Eden and the Fall. It is about the past and the future. It carries moments of sheer joy and wonder, as well as heartbreak and longing. "The Rockford Files" is about Josh Caress, but it is also about each of us.
"At some point I just thought, 'You never hear anybody writing about growing up in a loving family in a Midwestern suburb,'" Josh says of the album, "So I figured I had something unique to say."
After Rockford, Josh's family moved to Los Angeles to work in the unpredictable world of non-profit organizations. There was little regular schedule and little regular income. But for the five years they lived there they drove to Michigan and back each summer to visit Josh's grandparents' summer home near the lake, taking in all the sights along the way. There were many adventures. Eventually they moved to that Michigan summer home, living there until Josh followed his brother to Massachusetts after high school.
Josh's whole family had always been musical. His dad opened for Frank Zappa and had a top ten single (in Italy). His parents sang duets like Emmylou and Gram. In Boston, Josh joined his brother's rock group, The Troubadours, a New England mainstay for the next ten years. The rest of Josh's family eventually followed to Massachusetts, with his younger sister and brother eventually joining the The Troubadours. However, Josh had always been making music on his own, even in the Rockford days, when he would employ dual boomboxes for recording overdubs and background vocals.
Josh Caress has self-released four CDs since 2005. He has played over a hundred shows across the United States, most recently touring the East Coast, Southeast, the South and the Midwest in the fall of 2005, a trip chronicled on his record, "Josh Caress Goes On An Adventure!" (2006). In 2006, Josh got married and moved back to Michigan, where he lives with his wife and their first child, Noah.
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Recent praise for "Josh Caress Goes On An Adventure!":
"One amazing album"
"Josh Caress...composed an album about his journey through America. I couldn’t be more pleased with the results."
"Each time that Caress goes for a vocal line, he hits it, and more often than not, it’s shiver-inducing."
"If you’re a fan of singer/songwriter fare, you need to do yourself a favor and listen to Josh Caress. He will be making waves in the bigger music scene, so it’s best to jump on the bandwagon early and get the most out of his beautiful, incredibly written music."
- Stephen Carradini, "Independent Clauses ."
*To read the entire review, click here .*
*To read a review of "Letting Go Of A Dream," click here .*
Other accolades for Josh Caress:
-named a top 5 finalist in the "bandspotting" competition at the Calvin College Festival of Faith and Music 2007 by Andy Whitman (Paste Magazine) and Michael Kaufman (Athsmatic Kitty Records)
-"Adventure!" named one of the Top Ten Albums of the Year (2006) by independentclauses.com
To BUY a copy of "Josh Caress Goes On An Adventure!" (just released - August 2006!) click below!
To BUY a copy of "Letting Go Of A Dream" (fall, 2005) click below!
To BUY a copy of "Summer Friend" (spring, 2005) click below!
All CDs are $12.00 (shipping included).
