Tony Cummings chronicles the formative years of the maker of radio hits "The Prodigal" and "Garden In Manhattan", JOSIAH QUEEN

Josiah Queen

In the spring of 2023 Josiah Queen was working as a janitor - with occasional spells at a car wash - at the Florida church he grew up in. Josiah was engaged and wondering how he was going to support his future wife. Born in Clearwater, Florida, Josiah had become a Christian at age nine after his parents had taken him to a huge gathering of young people in Kansas. His parents were pastors at a church in New Port Richey, Florida.

Loving music, Queen joined his church's worship team and by the time he was 16 he was writing his own songs. In a K-LOVE website interview he spoke about his musical influences. "Phil Wickham was one of my favourite songwriters. My favourite band was Rend Collective. I went to a bunch of their concerts growing up. I love the banjo and instruments like that; but then in the last three-ish years, I started listening to different music to get inspiration. Definitely Zach Bryan got me into the acoustic stuff.and then a guy named Noah Kahan. There's this band called Caamp I really like. I like Mumford & Sons. I really found myself liking folk/country music."

An acoustic music approach was the perfect setting for the biblical narrative songs he began writing. As they came into focus in the solitude of his bedroom he wondered how people would ever get to hear them. So he began to post them on TikTok. One of his first songs was called "Fishes And Loaves". And like the little boy in the Bible who gave his meagre lunch to Jesus, Queen offered up his fledgling originals. He told interviewer Lindsey Williams, "I was like, 'God, I only have these songs. And I'm getting married. I'm trusting that this is the time you told me to do this.' And as soon as I took that step forward in faith, literally, God opened up all these opportunities."

His poignant and powerful compositions immediately began to find a receptive audience in the great streaming public. One of his songs, "I Am Barabbas", found over two million views on TikTok. It was his song "The Prodigal" which was to become his biggest hit, earning him a K-LOVE Fan Award for Breakout Single. The acclaim didn't stop there. He received a pair of Dove Award nominations as New Artist Of The Year and Pop/Contemporary Song Of The Year.

'The Prodigal' album which brought together a host of his dazzling singles, garnered a hugely enthusiastic review from Jesusfreakhideout's Joel Zaloum. The review praised the first song: "Opening to a simply plucked banjo, 'Garden In Manhattan' grows to a short thesis statement that couldn't be more clear or concise... 'Oh God, use me where you have me.' To flesh out this theme, Queen uses paradoxical scenarios that are at once striking, compelling, and easily understandable... 'I'll be a garden in Manhattan/be a river where it's dry/if my friends can't find the road I'll be a roadside welcome sign/Sunshine in Seattle/be a cool breeze in July/light in the darkness.'" And every other composition gets a similar endorsement. "'I Am Barabbas' is the last of the biblical illusions, giving an eye-opening look into an oft-forgotten biblical character, comparing the infamous robber to our sin-riddled lives, concluding that 'I am Barabbas, your friend.'"

Queen's "Easy To Praise" has gained half a million streams on Spotify. He told The Baptist Paper about it. "The crux of this song is joy. It's a fruit of the Spirit. Joy is a deeply rooted state of being that God invites us into as Christ-followers. The chorus talks about what Jesus did for us on the cross. When you start to think about the weight of that, and that invitation of the deepening of joy, what else can you say but 'Hallelujah'? God truly has made it easy to praise."

Now Queen has become a smash hit live performer. His debut headline tour across the US is showing the heart of a musical evangelist. He told K-LOVE, "I think my biggest desire, and my wife's biggest desire, is to see people's lives changed for Jesus." His wife goes on tour with Queen. He explained, "She actually brings the Gospel halfway through the set. I'll do half my set, and then she'll come out, and she preaches the Gospel for 10 minutes. It's awesome being able to do it with her. We dated long distance - she lived in Iowa, and I lived in Florida - for three-and-a-half years, and we always talked about doing this. She dreamed of preaching; I always dreamed of doing music. God has opened up our lives here. She's 20, I'm 21, and we're going around the country and we're seeing people saved. She gets to preach, and I get to do music; it's like everything we always dreamed about."