Rose Polenzani - $8

\'Folk badass\' might seem like an inappropriate term for an artist as intimate and soulful as Polenzani-but you know what? We-ll risk it.\" - Boston Weekly Dig 2009

-Not just another singer/songwriter... Polenzani-s songs are full of hidden lyrical corners and ghostly beauty.- -The Boston Herald 2010

Rose Polenzani was born in the midwest to a highly musical family. Her grandfather, Lynn Hauldren, sang in the award-winning barbershop quartet -Chordiac Arrest,- and was made famous in the midwest as the charismatic -Empire Carpet Man,- penning both the jingle and the commercials for many years. Her brother, Matthew Polenzani, is a world-class lyric tenor. She learned piano from an early age, and began writing songs in college on the guitar, later picking up the soprano and baritone ukuleles. Though she started as a solo singer/songwriter, musical collaboration has become the driving force behind her songwriting.
Rose has spent the past few years curating and developing the collaborative project, -SUB ROSA,- a monthly live show that brings the best and brightest of Boston-s songwriters together with some of the most talented and adventurous musicians (See below for a list of frequent flyers at SUB ROSA). The show\'s rich, layered harmonies and sprawling, dark, deep, playful instrumentation inspired the 13 new songs on Rose\'s upcoming August release, \"The Rabbit.\" Envisioned with call-and-response components, and written along with elaborate harmony vocal arrangements, this new record was recorded live in a one-room studio over the course of three days, with 10 to 14 singers and musicians playing at once. The album was mixed by Gary Maurer (of Hem).
The songs on -The Rabbit- are a progressive mediation on fate, pathway, and the human desire to feel agency and purpose. Over the course of the album, the narrator is moving from the never-land of ambivalence and doubt into a joyful embrace of the beautiful and mortal world, and her voice is shepherded along by a reflective chorus.
Rose-s collaborations have also spawned several creative YouTube videos--YouTube-s music editor once pulled Rose aside at a music conference to confess that her channel was a personal favorite. Rose has been nominated for three Boston Music Awards, and won the 2008 Mountain Stage NewSong competition for her song -You Were Drunk,- off her 2008 album -When the River Meets the Sea.- She received grants from the Club Passim Iguana Fund and the Somerville Arts council for the completion of this record.

About Rose Polenzani-s New CD: -The Rabbit-

Recorded live in the studio, the 14+ musicians on Rose-s sixth solo release have been playing together as part of the Boston-based, collaborative project SUB ROSA since 2008.

The album features 13 new and original songs by Rose--at once darker, wilder, more joyful and more inspired than anything she-s written before.

Her voice is shepherded along by a siren-chorus including Amy Correia, Anne Heaton, Rose Cousins, Kristin Andreassen (Uncle Earl and Sometymes Why), Elana Arian (Catie Curtis band) and Laura Cortese, and the band includes members of Session Americana and the Josh Ritter band.

The record has an other-worldly, imaginative quality that ranges from the joyful (Track 2- -The Blue Seed-) to the whimsical (Track 4 - -Pretty Black Ship-) to the world-wise (Track 3 - -Living in a Country-) to the transcendent (Track 13 - -Alligator River-). These songs work as a narrative, tracking the heroine along her quest to find her true purpose. The title of the album is taken from Track 12, -Dead Rabbit,- where the narrator comes to accept that -not everything can be alive.- -The Rabbit- was mixed by Gary Maurer of the band -Hem.-