The hopeful, steadying sounds of the song “So Alive”—which premieres exclusively on the INDY website today—came to Josh Moore after returning home from “journeying in ceremony with sacred plant medicine,” he says.

Intense experiences channeled through gentle songwriting is a hallmark of the Carrboro singer-songwriter’s music; Moore’s last album, 2015’s clement, rootsy Parting Ways, charted Moore’s journey through self-destruction to sobriety. 

“Words are not enough to say/what cannot be said,” Moore reassuringly croons on “So Alive,” a ballad about the power of the unseen that releases ahead of Moore’s album, Sunrise, which is due out on November 19. (Check the INDY on November 17 for a review of the album; Moore also opens for H.C. McCentire at Cat’s Cradle Backroom on November 19.) 

Moore’s vocals and acoustic guitar-playing on the song is backed by James Anthony Wallace on drums, bass, and piano and Scott McCall on electric slide guitar, with Skylar Gudasz joining for harmonies.

And at the very end of the song, a patient little voice pipes in, asking about a nap. It belongs to Wallace’s daughter. 

“James was tracking drums with his eyes closed,” Moore says. “When he opened his eyes, his daughter was standing right in front of the drums waiting eagerly to relay her message.”

Though not the album title track, “So Alive” has the emergent warmth of a sunset, and casts a long glow. Listen to the track below. 

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Sarah Edwards is culture editor of the INDY, covering cultural institutions and the arts in the Triangle. She joined the staff in 2019 and assumed her current role in 2020.