Born and raised in Alaska, he arrived in Scotland in 1992 to study Scottish Gaelic at the University of Aberdeen (1996), then undertook doctoral research in the history of the piping tradition of the southern Outer Hebrides at the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, published under the title When Piping was Strong: Tradition, Change, and the Bagpipe in South Uist (2006). A specialist in pibroch, he has performed in the contemporary Gaelic music scene with Na Trì Seudan and in Allan MacDonald’s award-winning 2004 Edinburgh Festival recital series, From Battlelines to Barlines. His ground-breaking anthology of piping studies, The Highland Bagpipe: Music, History, Tradition, was published by Ashgate (2009).  More recently he has brought to light the role of women in the inheritance and transmission of traditional Gaelic canntaireachd in Hebridean life via the journals Scottish Studies and Review of Scottish Culture (2013).  

Josh has led ground-breaking curricular reform which has helped position Scotland's national conservatoire as distinctive in the UK and wider Europe in traditional/folk music education and led the design of the BMus Traditional Music – Piping curriculum at the National Piping Centre.