By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
Jan 26, 2023
Westchester duo Joselyn & Don (Joselyn Wilkinson and Don Barrozo) are using their Americana/folk music to explore the connection with the natural world. The duo will celebrate the release of their latest album, "Seeds & Bones," with two-hour shows at the George Nakano Theater on Jan. 27 and 28. (Gina Valona/Submitted)
Westchester duo Joselyn & Don to perform at George Nakano Theater
The Westchester duo Joselyn & Don are using their Americana/folk music to explore the connection with the natural world. Rooted in the folk tradition, they draw from blues, jazz and spoken world.
Their latest album, “Seeds & Bones,” carries on this tradition. Joselyn Wilkinson and Don Barrozo will celebrate the release of “Seeds & Bones” with two-hour shows at the George Nakano Theater at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center on Friday, Jan. 27, and Saturday, Jan. 28.
“It’s going to be a wonderful overview of our last two albums, ‘Soar,’ our debut, and ‘Seeds & Bones,’” she said.
“It’s cabaret-style seating,” Barrozo added. “Usually, we’re just a duo, but we’re adding drums and bass. The albums have a fuller sound. This was a good opportunity to do something different, a little expanded from the duo thing we’ve done.”
“Seeds & Bones” dives headfirst into their influences that vary from classic rock and singer-songwriter to folk and jazz. “Soar” had more of a “folky vibe,” he said, with an R&B flair. “Seeds & Bones” has an “edge” to it. The aggressive music was born from an urgency to find truth.
“Thematically, it follows an arc of digging deep to find some personal truths and bringing them back out into the world with a sense of hope and renewal,” Wilkinson said.
The couple hails from Montana but moved to LA years ago, she said. Both are longtime musicians. However, their music careers have taken them in different paths.
“I’m classically trained, playing trumpet for most of my life,” he said. “I formally studied classical and jazz and became a multi-instrumentalist just through learning the instruments myself.
“My dad was a multi-instrumentalist band leader. Joselyn, she’s had the world music group, and performed in musical theater. We both came together through this Montana connection with the kind of music we grew up hearing. Joselyn heard a lot of folk in her household.”
Wilkinson added, “We’ve been in groups from world music global fusion to jazz to folk to singer-songwriter and everything in between. It’s been interesting to reinvent ourselves solidly in this Americana genre. It feels like we’re exploring a new world, even though we’ve been performing for a while.”
It took a bit for Wilkinson and Barrozo to find something to collaborate on with even footing.
“We’ve been together as a couple for a long time,” he added. “It just took us a while to find a project. Joselyn, she’s a prolific songwriter, but she hasn’t had a band out for a while.”
When she recorded solo albums, she hired a band and, she admitted, it wasn’t the easiest project to maintain. She continued to write but stopped performing.
“We were finding a sustainable way for the two of us to work together as a duo and perform our music more stripped down and really heartfelt and honest,” she said. “It has been a blessing.”
Sonically, their chord progressions borrow from classic pop and jazz, rather than straight-head folk or country. Audiences will be pleasantly surprised and intrigued by the music, she said.
“It’s not like anything you’ve heard before,” she added.
“We’re all about the hook,” he continued. “There’s a lot of Americana that can be repetitive or drone-y. I connect that back to my background growing up with popular songs — the standards and things that I heard as a kid. I want to hear mood changes that are harmonic. I think there’s less and less of that going on with songwriting.”
What it comes down to it having a message.
“We want our music to have something to say,” she said. “A lot of these messages have something to do with our connection with the Earth and nature. That’s always been really interesting to us—society, community, relationships and transcending the obstacles in our way.”
Joselyn & Don
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27, and Saturday, Jan. 28
WHERE: George Nakano Theater at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance
COST: Tickets start at $37
INFO: torrancearts.org