![]() “You know, playing your songs for someone in a studio is like getting naked in front of them it’s a very personal thing to do. “The funny thing was I hadn’t met any of them at all before we started recording,” says Rose. Recorded at Watson’s Delta-Sonic Studio, Rose is backed by a crew of Bluff City all-stars including a core band led by legendary guitarist Will Sexton, drummer George Sluppick and bassist Mark Edgar Stuart, with guests including organists Rick Steff (Lucero) and Al Gamble (St. ![]() “The stories and inspiration emanate from the mountains, but the tracks have all these different musical elements coming in.” “This album is Appalachia-meets-Memphis,” says Rose. He signed Rose and brought her to his Memphis home base to cut her full-length debut. Through her association with Tim Duffy – head of the non-profit Southern music preservation organization, Music Maker Relief Foundation - Rose was brought to the attention of Big Legal Mess label head Bruce Watson. There’s a lot of tension between wanting to leave your home and go out into the world, and the roots that pull you back.” “In a way Medicine for Living is about all the lessons I’ve learned, of people and places that have shaped my worldview and my definitions of love and commitment. That experience informed the songs I’ve written.” You meet a lot of interesting folks that way. Going around that way – driving around in a beat-up van, earning very little money – you find yourself staying in truck stops, sleeping on people’s floors. That’s what I’ve done that the last three years. ![]() Traveling and playing shows anywhere I could. I don’t think I ever really considered it as a ‘career’ or had ambitions of performing – I was maybe like my great-grandfather in that way.”īut after graduating in 2016, Rose decided to take a leap, throwing herself into touring, playing as she explored the highways and byways of America. I used it as something to come home to at the end of the day, and it always made me feel better. “That really affected the way I started crafted my own songs and how I sang.”ĭespite her studies, playing music was never a bloodless academic pursuit for Rose but rather a deeply intimate act. It’s all about the storytelling,” she says. “Those traditional songs are presented in a stark way that preserves the stories. “I always grew up with traditional mountain music in my ear and in my community, but I don’t think I actualized its influenced on me until I moved to North Carolina in 2013.” It was there, as a music major at Appalachian State University, that Rose was fully exposed to a wealth of old time music, regional stylists like Doc Watson, and most crucially, the ancient folk ballads carried over from the British Isles. A stunning ten-track effort, it finds the 25-year-old singer-songwriter bringing a wellspring of tradition to bear on an enlivening collection of contemporary roots songs.Ī mostly self-taught musician, Rose picked up the guitar as a teen. That visceral connection is at the core of Rose’s debut album, Medicine for Living (Big Legal Mess, October 4th). That’s what really inspires me about the musical culture in the South and the mountains, especially.” There’s a deep connection between their sense of place and the music they make. They don’t do it commercially, that’s not the essence of what they do. “There are so many musicians where I’m from, people who just play on their porch or in some local bar - and they’re amazing. ![]() But my great-grandfather decided to stay in the mountains with his wife on their farm.” “Apparently, Lester tried to get him to move to Nashville and pursue a career. “Growing up I would hear stories of my great-grandfather Alvy who, for a time, lived and played with Lester Flatt when they were both young men,” says Rose. Though no one in her immediate family played or sang, she inherited a deep musical legacy. Alexa Rose was born in the Alleghany Highlands of western Virginia, raised in the tiny railroad town of Clifton Forge. ![]()
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