Joselyn & Don: Their Musical Journey and Impact
October 17, 2025
by Jim Hynes
The Americana duo Joselyn Wilkinson and Don Barrozo have returned with their first full-length album since the pandemic. The aptly titled Lost & Found Highway, their third album, is a comprehensive view of their enduring journey, citing places, memories, political protest, and emotional challenges. The Montana-raised duo, who relocated to Los Angeles, have made an impact in the City of Angels, as evidenced by tapping notable Americana stalwarts such as Greg Leisz (pedal steel), Bob Glaub (bass), and Mauricio “Fritz” Lewak (drums). Leisz has played with artists ranging from Dave Alvin and Lucinda Williams to jazz icons Charles Lloyd and Bill Frisell. Glaub and Lewak are the longtime bass-drum tandem for Jackson Brown. They are among a lengthy list of musicians and vocalists in the credits, highlighted by guest vocalists Chris Pierce, Cristina Vane, and Abby Posner. Barrozzo and Graham Richman are the co-producers.
Beyond the high-profile accompaniment, though, the main draw is Wilkinson’s powerful, singular voice and Barrozo’s skilled fingerpicked guitar. They wrote nine of the ten songs, while also delivering a terrific cover of John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind.”
The musical road trip begins with “Right on Through,” featuring Vane on the harmonies and Leisz creating the haunting soundscape. It details the true train disaster in Helena, MT, in 1989, but uses it as a metaphor for a love relationship crashing on the same mid-winter night. “Golden Hill” is imbued by a string quartet that sets the reflective palette for one’s happy place, a sanctuary to find peace among the chaos – “Birds flying back to the place they’re from/
I’ll find my way back to you, Golden Hill.” While the song begins with Wilkinson singing in a rhythmic cadence, she changes it up with elongated phrasing toward the end of the song, indicative of her fondness for the place. The up-tempo “Girl from the Mountain” shares a somewhat similar sentiment in her reluctance to leave home while realizing she needs to go to LA to realize her musical dreams.
Pierce is forceful on bluesy harmonica and vocals, joining Wilkinson on the soulful, hard-edged protest in “Choose Love,” railing against the religious right. There’s a Grace Slick-like anger in Wilkinson’s voice as she sings, “They wanna take control of my body and my soul/Ain’t no secret who they’re trying to please/You’d have to be ashamed for calling on God’s name/If hate’s the only poison you bleed.” Segueing to environmental protest follows in a declarative cover of “Seminole Wind.” Barrozo takes the lead vocal on “Working the Hi-Line’ about his immigrant father, who helped build the railroads that stretched from Chicago to Seattle. They sing about a time before divisiveness and racism set in, settling in Montana, and appreciating the simple aspects of working the land. That completes a tri-fecta of protest songs.
The chugging “Four AM” touches on an array of anxieties in the prototypical sleepless night, paid off in the last verse with “The world keeps on spinning no matter how you fret,” yet another expression of the couple’s endurance. “What Are We Doing Here?” conjures the ‘70s country-rock sound, ornamented with Barrozo on trumpet, as Wilkinson delivers autobiographical lines about finding acceptance as a rural girl in L.A. The title track, with its deft picking by Barozzo, addresses the questions of restlessness, namely why they’re always on the move and not only how they ended up in L.A. but what the future portends. All those questions are resolved in the closer “Rock and Roll Heart,” an affirmation that a song can light a spark and that through the many winding roads, they are indeed on the right path. The journey was worth it.
https://www.makingascene.org/joselyn-don-lost-found-highway/