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Street Beat Spotlight Feature
Storyteller Smells Mighty Sweet As He Blooms…
AL ROSE
by Ernie Thomas
There is no real way to describe the music of singer/songwriter, Al Rose, except perhaps to say he is a teller of tales that have an “everyman” quality to them.
Rose is a kindred spirit to such Chicago songwriting icons as John Prine, Bill Quateman and Steve Goodman, without quite as much of a “folk” factor in the mix.
Though most would cite him a singer/songwriter, that term conveys an image of an acoustic strummer with a harmonica rack around his neck. Sometimes that is the very image of Rose on stage, but not always. He performs in a variety of incarnations and intensities –– solo, duo, trio, or as a full-fledged electric rock band –– depending on the show, the venue and what he is feeling.
“I’m equally comfortable in any of those combinations,” he said.
Though bred on Chicago’s North Side, Rose’s connection to Northwest Indiana stretches back to the late 1970s, when he was a member of the acoustic rock group, Three Story Brownstone. Signed to the Merrillville-based indie label, Erect Records, the group shared the Holiday Star Theatre stage with the likes of Don McLean and Three Dog Night.
While his repertoire does not reach back that far, tonight’s concert set will be culled from the four solo albums that Rose has released over the last decade –– Information Overload (1995), Naked In A Trailer (1997), Pigeon’s Throat (2001) and Gravity Of Crow (2003) –– along with a couple of choice cover songs and a few newly written tunes, not yet recorded for his next CD.
“I’m going through that interesting period where you sit down with your batch of songs and ask yourself, ‘What do I want my record to sound like?’,” said Rose, who is thinking of calling the forthcoming disc as, My First Posthumous Release.
“In my head, I would like to get these new songs into the studio within the next six months,” he said. “But in my heart, I know I won’t go in and record until the songs let me know they are ready.”
Playing the newer tunes before an audience helps them to breath, grow and mature. It helps Rose to know when they are ripe for recording. “I like to work. I like to record. I like to play music. And I like to put new records out,” he said. “But you really can’t rush the creative process.”
Though earlier releases came out on the now defunct Chicago indie imprint, Waterdog Records, these days Rose expects that he will have to take it upon himself to make and market his next album via his own label, Monkey Holding Peach Records.
Given that he and his wife also own and operate the Kopi Cafe (5317 N. Clark St.), running his own label is less by choice than by necessity.
“I’d rather not have to do it all myself, but I am a musician and I make records. It’s what I do,” he concluded.
“I’m shopping [for a label] a little bit, but either way when this record is ready to come out, it will come out. Then I’ll start writing for the next one. It’s the nature of the business. It’s just the nature of the beast.” |
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