Josie Langhorst: Diary of a Minnesota Musician, Chapter 10
This is a year-long series following Josie Langhorst, a Minnesota artist new to the Twin Cities, as she shares her experiences entering the scene and making music in a new environment.
Mid-May through June 2026
Approaching the one year anniversary since Josie Langhorst packed up her life in Duluth and moved south to the Twin Cities, there’s a realization of permanence creeping into her mind.
When this series began, much of our conversations centered around uncertainty. There were new jobs to navigate, unfamiliar venues to explore, and an entirely new music scene to figure out. Every month seemed to bring another new step. Josie’s first gig since moving, first open mic, first networking connections, a debut album release, and a renewed appetite for collaborations in songwriting.
Now, with summer arriving and her job at school on pause, Josie finds herself looking around and realizing how quickly the time has passed.
“I’ve been reflecting a lot on that. Now the school year’s done, I’m like, oh my God. I feel like I just fast-forwarded to summer and then holy shit, I’ve been here for almost a year—which is nice.”
The realization caught her off guard. Nine months can feel simultaneously brief and monumental. Long enough to establish routines and know which roads to take without Google Maps. Long enough to discover the places that feel like your own. More importantly, long enough to build a small community.
Recently, Josie spent an evening with coworkers at one of their drag performances. It wasn’t a concert or networking opportunity. It was simply a group of friends gathering to support one another. Somewhere during the night, she found herself reflecting on how natural it all felt, confessing how welcoming it felt to finally have a good community around her.
That feeling of belonging has become one of the defining themes of her first year in Minneapolis. The city that once felt intimidating now feels familiar. The musicians she once admired from a distance have become collaborators, friends, and peers.
That sense of connection was especially apparent at the end of May when Josie stepped onto the stage at The Mess Records with her newest project, Parties With Strangers. The venue itself carried a special significance. Almost a year earlier, Josie and fellow musician Lee Nielson had attended a show at The Mess featuring Waking Hours. Sitting together in lawn chairs between sets, they jokingly described the experience as being “a little party with strangers.” The phrase immediately stuck. They looked at each other and simultaneously knew it would be a great band name.
Months later, that conversation became a real project, complete with original songs, collaborative songwriting sessions, and a debut performance at the very venue where the idea first took shape.
There’s something satisfying about a creative circle coming around like that, where the place where an idea was born eventually becomes the place where it takes its first voice. The performance itself featured a mixture of material from both songwriters. Some songs belonged to Josie. Others belonged to Lee. Several were written together. They even worked in a cover of “Either Way” by Odie Leigh, an artist they both admire. The show represented another milestone in Josie's evolution as a performer.
Josie is in a different place than last month, when there was a drought of creative writing. Recently she’s found herself writing more than she has in quite some time. Part of that surge has been fueled by a camping trip that gave her time to think. Ideas arrived unexpectedly while sitting around campgrounds and hiking trails. Without a guitar nearby, she couldn’t immediately turn them into songs, but she filled notebooks with lyrics and observations she hopes to revisit later.
The larger catalyst, however, came from a much more personal place as Josie went through a breakup. Heartbreak occupies a strange central role in so much songwriting. Painful experiences rarely feel valuable while they’re happening, yet many artists eventually find themselves turning those emotions into something meaningful. Songwriting has become a way to process emotions that previously felt difficult to share.
“I ended up breaking up with my girlfriend. That provided a lot of material, and songwriting also helped process feelings and emotions. I am looking for a new apartment since my lease is up in August, which marks the end of my first year here.”
As our conversation continued, she described an experience that will likely resonate with many songwriters. Sometimes songs become the most honest form of communication available. During the relationship, there were moments where she found herself writing about frustrations, fears, and feelings she struggled to express directly. Some songs stayed hidden because sharing them felt too vulnerable. Others were shared openly, only to feel misunderstood.
It’s a dilemma many musicians encounter. A song can feel like a complete emotional statement to the person writing it. But to everyone else, it's simply another song.
When I asked what emotions were showing up most frequently in her notebook, she paused before offering two words: “frustration and forgiveness.”
Checking in on her other creative outlets, Josie disclosed that her Duluth band Moxen has also broken up. For some listeners, Moxen served as their introduction to Josie. The band was a significant chapter in her musical development. Even though its ending arrived under difficult and swift circumstances, while discussing the band’s dissolution, Josie focused less on the ending itself and more on what the experience gave her.
Moxen built up a confidence and awareness of stage presence. It was a way to stop worrying about how she looked while performing. She remembers watching Gavin move all over stage, jumping into crowds and embracing the energy of a live show. She fed off that energy and will always have Moxen to thank in teaching her some valuable performance skills.
Her lease expiring in August means another move is on the horizon. New songs continue piling up in notebooks and voice memos. Conversations with Lee about future collaborations remain ongoing. More importantly, she feels increasingly ready to finally begin recording some of the material she's accumulated over the years.
“I really want to lay down some of the songs that I have. I have a lot of new songs and ones that I’ve written in the past with the Langertsons that aren’t recorded. So I kind of want to just put out a bunch of the material that I have, because I feel like I’m sitting a lot.”
Nearly a year ago, Josie was arriving in Minneapolis wondering where she fit into the music community. As we approach the end of this series in August, it’s clear to see that somewhere between the riverbanks, breakups, collaborations, and the community she’s built around herself, Minneapolis has started to feel like home to Josie. And perhaps that’s the most important milestone of all of this.
Josie will be playing at the Cedar Lounge in Superior, WI on August 22nd with anni xo and Admiral Fox. This feels like a full-circle show for this series, because Adventures in Americana cofounder Carol Roth first discovered Josie at that very venue just over two years ago. The following year we featured Josie on our Smouse in the House podcast, and soon after that broached the idea for this series. It’s a perfect illustration of how every show and moment has the potential to change things for both artists and audience members.
Stay tuned for chapter 11 later this month!
About the Author & Photographer
Tom Smouse. Photo Credit: Chris Taylor.
Tom Smouse is an innovative collaborator with 20 years of experience in the Minnesota music industry. As a professional photographer, podcaster, and music journalist, sharing stories from the community remains his core passion. When not at a show you can find him at a record store.
