Beneath the Sand - Song

Release Date: June 14, 2025

FOR YOUR GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION
“Beneath the Sand”
Submitted in: Best American Roots Song
Written by Joshua Josué, Roly Salley, and Ben Rice

Independent Chicano rock artist Joshua Josué will release his new single “Beneath the Sand” on June 14,, 2025, delivering a deeply personal and cinematic meditation on grief, escape, and transformation along the highways of Central America.

Co-written with GRAMMY-winning songwriter Roly Salley (Robert Plant/ Alison Krauss “Killing the Blues” & Chris Isaak Band) and guitarist Ben Rice, the song was born in the aftermath of a profound personal loss. “After losing someone very dear to me, I felt like disappearing,” Josué says. “I wandered through Mexico and Central America for about a year, just trying to outrun the grief — and that’s where this song lives.”

The trio completed “Beneath the Sand” in a remote Mojave Desert cabin late in the night, following a recording session. Fueled by solitude and wide-open spaces, the track unfolds over acoustic guitar, accordion and sparse production, with lyrics evoking border towns, memory-choked highways, and the glimmer of something more hopeful ahead:

“Motorcycle in the jungle, I’m going somewhere - anyplace that I can run, a place to disappear….”

“There’s a light out in the distance, it’s a sign I must move on.”

The song will appear on Josué’s forthcoming album Beneath the Sand (Electric CholoLand Records), set for release on August 8, 2025. The project features notable collaborators including Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), Joel Guzmán (Los Super Seven, Crazy Heart), Mitch Marine (Dwight Yoakam), and Hershel Yatovitz (Chris Isaak).