Josaleigh Pollett – Like a River
Josaleigh Pollett (any/all pronouns) has shared “Like a River”, the third single from their fourth album, If I Let It Quiet, out July 24 via Audio Antihero and Lavender Vinyl. It follows Radio Player (W44), built from childhood memories of Poltergeist and the unreliability of memory itself, and The Witness (W21), which dealt with the discomfort of being truly seen by someone else. “Like a River” circles back inward again, this time toward the noise inside Pollett’s own head.
The whole album has been built across an ocean. Longtime collaborator and producer Jordan Watko moved to Japan partway through the process, and the two have been trading recordings between Pollett’s home setup in Salt Lake City and Watko’s apartment ever since. None of that distance shows up as friction on this track. Warm acoustic guitar opens the song before pulsing electronic percussion, ambient textures, and layered vocals build around it, never quite settling into one mode for long. Pollett’s voice stays the clear center of it, even in the moments where the production threatens to swallow it whole.
Pollett wrote “Like a River” about trying to quiet a noisy mind in a noisy world, inspired directly by Paul Simon’s “Peace Like a River.” “Hoping for the peace of a quiet river bank,” they’ve said, “only to remember that a river is swift, chaotic, and ever-changing the earth beneath it.” That’s the whole tension of the song in one image: the thing you go to for stillness turns out to be the least still thing around.
Andrew Goldring, who’s worked with Pollett before, handled mixing and mastering and added deeper instrumentation throughout the record. A Western US tour follows the album release, running from late July into mid-August.
Tour dates:
North America:
- Jul. 25 / Salt Lake City, UT / First Baptist Church
- Jul. 28 / Boise, ID / Shrine Social Club
- Jul. 29 / Whidbey Island, WA / Koneksi Gallery
- Jul. 30 / Seattle, WA / Conor Byrne Pub
- Jul. 31 / Portland, OR / Turn! Turn! Turn!
- Aug. 2 / Eugene, OR / Porch Fest
- Aug. 3 / Chico, CA / Naked Lounge
- Aug. 4 / San Jose, CA / Heavy Lemon
- Aug. 5 / Los Angeles, CA / Venue TBA
- Aug. 6 / Las Vegas, NV / Dustland
- Aug. 7 / St. George, UT / Amusement Co Records
- Aug. 14 / Denver, CO / D3 Arts
