Pete Josef – So You Should

Exactly one year after the passing of his father, William Joseph “Joe” Bernard, Pete Josef releases So You Should — a tender and deeply personal song about grief, remembrance, and quiet strength.

Written in the weeks following his father’s death in January 2025, the song captures both the weight of loss and the warmth of looking back. Joe was born in 1935 — a man of few words, shaped by a different era, and always somewhat of a mystery to his sons. A church musician by tradition, Joe lived a humble, stoic life, often challenged by the fast-moving modern world. This song is Pete’s way of connecting the dots between the things said and unsaid — and of imagining what his father might have wanted him to hear.

“Whenever you are lonely, look up and you tell me
and I will call back to you to say:
If I can do it, you can too.”
– from So You Should

Echoes of the church permeate the arrangement: ethereal background voices nod to choral traditions, while reverberant spaces evoke the sacred architecture Joe once filled with music. But this is no hymn — it’s a raw, intimate, and emotionally direct piece that sits closer to the modern troubadour tradition: think Leif Vollebekk, Iron & Wine, or Nick Cave at his most compassionate.

Recorded with care and restraint, the instrumentation centres around a trio of 60s classics: Pete’s Harmony Sovereign acoustic guitar, a hollow-bodied Hofner bass, and whisper-soft Ludwig drums played with brushes. A Harmony Bobkat electric brings shimmer and atmosphere in the song’s climactic bridge.

As with earlier tracks like Sunny Side Up, the production honours space and storytelling. But this time, the voice isn’t just Pete’s — it’s his father’s, imagined and remembered, gently passing on perspective, encouragement, and grace:

“Remember, above all else, I tried to see the good…
And so you should.”

So You Should is both a farewell and a benediction — a quiet conversation across time, released exactly one year on from the day Joe left this world.

https://sonarkollektiv.lnk.to/soyoushould