Joseph

Joseph is one of American folk music's most compelling success stories, a band built on the purest of foundations: family, harmony, and an unshakeable love of honest songwriting. Formed in Portland, Oregon, the group consists of three sisters — Natalie Closner and twins Allison and Meegan Closner — whose voices intertwine with a natural chemistry that only blood relations can produce. Their name is a tribute both to the small Oregon town of Joseph and to their grandfather Jo, grounding the band's identity in a deep sense of place and personal history.

The journey began when Natalie, who had been pursuing a solo singer-songwriter career, invited her younger twin sisters to join her in a new creative venture. After a label representative suggested their original name lacked the gravitas their songwriting deserved, the sisters drew inspiration from a camping trip to Joseph, Oregon — a regular escape for the family — and settled on the name that would come to define them. In 2014, they self-released their debut album, Native Dreamer Kin, building a devoted following through intimate house shows performed as a stripped-back acoustic trio, accompanied by little more than an acoustic guitar and a foot drum.

That grassroots momentum caught the attention of ATO Records, who signed Joseph in 2015. The sisters then began work on their major label debut with acclaimed producer Mike Mogis, resulting in I'm Alone, No You're Not, released on August 26, 2016. The album announced the band's arrival on the national stage in emphatic fashion, debuting at number one on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, where it remained for two weeks. The lead single, White Flag, premiered on NPR's Songs We Love and climbed to the top of the Adult Alternative Songs chart in October 2016, while simultaneously charting on Spotify's US Viral Top Ten. It was a breakthrough that felt both sudden and entirely earned.

The album's success opened doors that few folk acts ever reach. Joseph made their television debut performing White Flag on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, followed by appearances on Ellen, CONAN, Later... with Jools Holland, CBS This Morning, and NBC's TODAY. They toured alongside James Bay, including a sold-out arena run in Fall 2016, and graced the stages of some of the world's most celebrated music festivals, including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, and the Newport Folk Festival. In 2017, they released the seven-track EP Stay Awake, further demonstrating their range and creative restlessness.

The band continued to grow and evolve with their third studio album, Good Luck, Kid, released in September 2019. The lead single Fighter was described by Meegan as a song that asks listeners to come alive, to wake up and be present — sentiments that captured the spirit of a band always pushing forward. Then in April 2023, Joseph released The Sun, a luminous album introduced by the single Nervous System, proving once again their ability to craft music that feels both timely and timeless.

In August 2024, the band faced a significant change when Allison announced she would be stepping away from Joseph for the foreseeable future. Rather than retreating, Natalie and Meegan responded with characteristic resilience, releasing Starting Over At The End just days later as their first song as a duo. This spirit of renewal carried through to Closer to Happy, released on January 30, 2026, through Nettwerk Music Group. Co-produced by the two sisters alongside Luke Niccoli, the twelve-track album explored themes of heartbreak, loss, and self-reclamation — a deeply personal statement that marked a bold new chapter for a band that has never stopped growing.

Through every transition and triumph, Joseph has remained true to the values that first brought the Closner sisters together: emotional honesty, extraordinary vocal craft, and an ability to find beauty in life's most complex moments. Their music endures because it speaks directly to the human heart, and their story continues to inspire everyone lucky enough to hear it.