There is something refreshing about a songwriter who understands that the rough edges are often where the truth lives. For the past decade, Josiah Leming has been steadily moving away from the polished pop-rock expectations that followed his early career and toward something much more personal: songs built around storytelling, melody, and the simple power of a voice that sounds like it has lived through what it is singing about. As Is continues that evolution, but it also expands the world around him. Where 2023’s Endurance often felt like a solitary journey, As Is opens the door to a wider musical landscape without losing the intimacy that makes Josiah and the Bonnevilles unique.
The album’s ten songs were chosen from a much larger collection of material written over the previous year, and that sense of careful selection comes through. These songs feel lived-in rather than overly polished, capturing moments of heartbreak, uncertainty, memory, and resilience without trying to force a neat conclusion. Leming’s greatest strength remains his ability to find meaning in ordinary details. On “Where It Starts,” a simple story of a night gone wrong becomes something much larger, while “Youth and Dreams” looks back at the complicated space between innocence and experience. His writing has a conversational quality, like someone telling you a story across a table rather than performing from a stage.
Musically, As Is represents a broader palette for Josiah and the Bonnevilles. The acoustic guitar is still the foundation, but the album brings in electric guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and a wide group of collaborators to create more room around the songs. Co-produced by Josiah Leming and Konrad Snyder, the record balances Americana roots with a subtle rock influence, never allowing the arrangements to overpower the storytelling. “Good Boy” introduces that wider sound immediately, while “Mountain Girl” stands out as one of the album’s most immediately memorable moments, driven by its infectious melody, banjo, and easygoing warmth.
The title As Is feels like the perfect description of both the record and the songwriter behind it. These songs do not pretend that life is cleaner or simpler than it is. They are about accepting the broken guitars, complicated relationships, missed chances, and unexpected turns that make up a life. “Hell Without the Flames” carries a gritty, almost Southern gothic weight, while the closing title track transforms that idea into something more hopeful — a reminder that the cracks and imperfections are often where the light finds its way in. There is a quiet wisdom in that perspective, one earned rather than manufactured.
With As Is, Josiah and the Bonnevilles continues to prove that great songwriting does not require excess. It requires honesty, a strong melody, and the ability to make a stranger recognize something familiar in your story. Josiah Leming has spent years refining that craft, and this album feels like the work of an artist comfortable with exactly who he is. Not cleaned up. Not reinvented. Just exactly as it should be. – Jason Felton