folk bad ass.
Posted on | January 9, 2010 | 3 Comments
on December 29, the day of the last sub rosa, Billy Beard found this on the Weekly Dig online:
“FOLK NIGHT / Rose Polenzani @ Lizard Lounge “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. She’s kinda like Leonard Cohen and kinda like Nick Drake, with maybe just a touch of rock attitude thrown in. And on top of that, when you hear her singing, it’s hard not to think: “What a badass.” [1667 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 617.547.0759. 8:30pm/21+/$12. lizardloungeclub.com]“
you nice people out there, I wanna pinch your cheeks.
so Billy said “who’s making the tee shirt?” and guess what? Chris O’Brien made the tee shirt. He showed up to SUB ROSA in a “Rose Polenzani Folk Badass” home-made tee (thanks to staples) and blew my mind - on the teeshirt, he used a photo from two summers ago - when I played at the Kendall square summer series with Austin Nevins in 100+ heat, and wore shorts for the first time onstage, and spent several panicky minutes scouring facebook untagging myself from those pictures.
anyway - my thighs were not on the tee shirt.
thanks for the memories my lovely friends -
love,
rose
Tags: Rose Polenzani Chris O'Brien Billy Beard Sub Rosa
best of 2009
Posted on | January 8, 2010 | No Comments
Our beloved SUB ROSA contributor MC Mr. Napkins has picked up and moved to Los Angeles - He’s going to be a huge star! He’s going to write all the rap songs for animated sitcoms in 2011, that’s my prediction, or that the Simpsons will create a character of him for their 2010 fall season. OR that he gets his own comedy central special.
Anyway, SUB ROSA has a surprise built into it every month, the “stranger,” booked by beloved Billy Beard. And this month, that surprise was spoiled - I met the “stranger” by accident on Sunday, December 27, at the Fa la la Ferrick show at Club Passim - “Lady Lamb the Beekeeper”, aka Aly Spaltro, who wowed me early on with her indie-sensibility percussion skills and charming half-lisp (I didn’t know yet how exciting her solo stuff was, I’d just met her).
Anyway, Aly wrote a curious and sweet email on facebook in her friend request, and now I realized that it’s lost forever, because I accepted her request… this feeling of missing that bit of information is kind of beautiful, like the passing of sweet moments in real life. She told me about her parakeet, how she was singing “you were drunk” to him because he seemed to like it.
So instead of the stranger being a surprise, I got another one. MC Mr. Napkins made a surprise appearance in “you were drunk” - everyone says, “the look on your face…” about this moment - here it is on youtube - the excitement happens at 2:19, after the solo…
Also, I wrote a new song - despite the names given here, it’s still nameless - we’ll see - the beautiful people of SUB ROSA gave it so much soul - and thanks to Nicole Soriano for the taping!
and my favorites of 2009 - - - - - - - - - -
best movie I saw: Fantastic Mr. Fox
best book I read: “The World To Come” by Dara Horn
best NPR story: on “the Moth” - the story of the home health aide in the home of a klansman
best tv show: Glee
best new album: Bill Callahan’s “Sometimes I wish we were an eagle”
best website: wikipedia, still, after all these years. I even just used it twice while making this list.
Rose is nominated for “Folk Act of the Year” 2009! Vote now!
Posted on | November 23, 2009 | No Comments
vote for me in the 2009 Boston Music Awards!! The awards are held on December 2nd. Voting is easier than ever this year, and also fun–they put youtube videos up on the voting website:
http://www.thebostonmusicawards.com/contests/bma09/vote/
thanks!
rose p
New (old) live (beautiful!) footage…
Posted on | November 1, 2009 | No Comments
My friend Nicole has an ongoing chronicle project called “on and off mass ave” or “folk film project” or maybe even something else next year when the muse calls her to move her vision onwards and upwards…. In any case, she just released a bunch of footage from a benefit we played for her project a couple years ago at Club Passim, and it’s beautiful!!!! The cameraman. He is . Truly wonderful.
Here are the videos from my little set at the show, all of which features Jennifer Kimball (who is in Ireland for year so we definitely need this to tide us over) and Anne Heaton, who is just a superb musician - I’m so lucky to get to sing with these ladies.
I’m playing in Catie Curtis’s Regent theater show this saturday, November, 7, and it should be full of beautiful harmonious moments like the ones captured in these videos. Come on over!
“Highest Hopes” with Jennifer Kimball, Anne Heaton, and Brian Webb:
“Seven Swans” with Jennifer Kimball and Anne Heaton
“Like a Miracle” with Jennifer Kimball, Anne Heaton, Tim Gearan, Brian Webb, Duke Levine, and Dinty Child!
Visit “On and Off Mass Ave” at their youtube page for videos from all these artists and more - it was a really special night.
love and happy fall to all,
rose
Tags: Anne Heaton > Brian Webb > Club Passim > Dinty Child > Duke Levine > Jennifer Kimball > Nicole Soriano > Rose Polenzani > Tim Gearan
New Video - “Broken Wings”
Posted on | September 5, 2009 | 1 Comment
I’ve been building up quite a backlog of video footage for editing and posting - this has been a huge year for me! I moved, I got married, and I got a car (more touring!). It’s been an incredible ride, and I’m left on the other side of it all feeling peaceful and excited to dig into these videos -
here’s the first of three I’ll be posting in the next couple months (if all goes well with the editing and ideas) - Originally recorded after a Rose Cousins show at Club Passim in Cambridge, using their lovely little green room/office, and incorporating some disco dancing b-roll footage from my (former, beloved, long-lost) little home office. It’s Mr. Mister’s 80s hit “Broken Wings.” Enjoy!
Tags: Broken Wings > Jennifer Kimball > Mr. Mister > Rose Cousins > Rose Polenzani > Sean Staples
New video: “Say Say Say” in Halifax
Posted on | July 13, 2009 | No Comments
This weekend, my friends (Nicole Soriano, Ellen Roth, Laura Cortese, and Anne Heaton) and I went to Halifax to visit our friend Rose Cousins. Rose and Ana Egge were in the band that opened on Saturday for Paul McCartney in Halifax, and Rose C. came up with the idea to cover “Say Say Say”, the famous duet by Paul and Michael Jackson, which we ended up doing in the middle of the night after the incredible concert…. Here’s the video:
I edited this video on the way home from Halifax, on Anne’s computer in Laura’s minivan - the song just stays in your head - it’s amazing. I remember the moment Rose C. decided to move from playing it at the piano to playing it on the mandola, and how the rhythm was so unexpected and exciting. This take was the first time I was able to not act like a total r&b diva while singing the song - (and I only sort of succeed) - it’s just too inspiring!
Paul McCartney was totally incredible. I’m talking FIREWORKS went off at the climax of “Live and Let Die.” And seriously: he played the UKULELE for the beginning of “something in the way” - and he played “blackbird” solo, just on the acoustic guitar, to 50,000 people. He was so amazing.
Thanks to my friends for the incredible trip! fond memories and many margeritas.
SUB ROSA May 28, 2009
Posted on | June 4, 2009 | 2 Comments
This most recent SUB ROSA was everybody’s favorite - so many people came, both audience and participant - the stars kind of converged - And then (this never happens!!!) Dan Cardinal, who has done a gorgeous job on sound for SUB ROSA since the beginning, sent me audio files to share, so I’m totally sharing them, full on. Here is the most recent SUB ROSA - it was killer. Performers not listed include Billy Beard on drums, Charlie Rose on pedal steel, and Andy Santospago on banjo/electric guitar. Kimon Kirk sang a song, but he also played bass for everyone…
A cool thing about this new media player idea - it’s yahoo media, for when you don’t need to hide your URLs and such, and it will play all the mp3s found on this page as a continuous playlist. Thanks to loudersoft’s blog for this idea!
Set One:
1. The Blue Seed (Rose Polenzani)
2. Heavy Lifting (David Champagne)
3. Flashlight (Dave Godowsky)
4. Highway Del Sol (Catie Curtis)
5. Me and My Mouth (Alastair Moock)
6. Where Your Scar Is (Anne Heaton)
7. Saturday Day (Jennifer Kimball)
8. Who Do You Think You’re Foolin’ (Caleb Aronsen)
9. Do Right Woman (Jess Tardy) Song by Chips Moman, Dan Penn
10. The Stranger: Gretel’s First Song
11. The Stranger Interview (with Gretel)
12. The Strenger: Gretel’s Second Song
13. Hallelujah (Dinty Child)
14. Eid Ma Clack Shaw (Rose Polenzani) Song by Bill Callahan
15. Falling Stars (Sarah Siskind)
16. Lovin’s For Fools (Sarah Siskind)
17. Kimon Kirk
18. Battened Hatches (Chuck E. Costa)
19. I Am Good Fortune (Chuck E. Costa)
20. Oh, Mama (Aoife O’Donovan)
21. Send Me A Letter (Kristin Andreassen)
22. Love Hurts (Katie Champagne & Neil Cleary) Song by Boudleaux Bryant and Felice Bryant
23. Pigfoot & a Bottle of Beer (Neil Cleary) Song by Wesley Wilson
24. Little Heart (Dave Godowsky)
25. God Knows (Dave Godowsky)
26. Dig a Little Deeper in the Well (Jim Fitting) Song by Morris, Kenneth
27. Katherine McClelland’s Song
28. You Were Drunk (Rose Polenzani)
29. She is a Rainbow (Rose Polenzani) Song by Sharon Lewis
the living room.
Posted on | May 21, 2009 | No Comments
I got an email from someone the other day who wanted to know how the show with Annabelle went in NYC - oh man. I tried to write about it the day after and I felt inadequate to the task - it was really great.
I think, actually, it was in my top 5 show experiences of all time, because I actually kept forgetting I was on stage. I think it was partly that I was up there with two beautiful, solid, trustworthy and open-hearted musicians: Annabelle Chvostek and Elena Arian, and partly because I have played the living room so many times that it actually felt like my living room for the first time. And partly because Steve was running sound. Oh Steve! How are you not completely burned out after all these years of listening to singer/songwriters!
We drove in Annabelle’s minivan, with Annabelle’s girlfriend Ximena at the wheel, and Annabelle would alternately climb into the cavernous rear of the van (they’d removed the seats) to rehearse and climb back up front to chill out while I snuggled into their blankets and pillows and fell asleep (I think I actually slept through Southwestern Connecticut).
We met at Elana’s to rehearse that afternoon, and I taught them the call & response parts to “seven swans” - which were developed with Anne Heaton, Jennifer Kimball & Catie Curtis backstage at Club Passim’s “campfire” a couple years ago. Elana worked out so many parts in such a tiny amount of time, and then she nailed them all that evening at the show. Annabelle’s mandolin sounded so beautiful all night….
We ended with Sharon Lewis’s song “She is a Rainbow,” and though we never rehearsed it, I remember living out a bit of a fantasy at the first chorus, saying “ladies?” kind of like Justin Timberlake if he was in a singer/songwriter type of mood - and they joined right in on the “la la la la”s - - - - - - - what a night! for some reason, I sat down at the piano with my guitar on my lap - I just wanted to have the sound of the guitar and the piano at the same time but of course, no matter how long the song went on, I never did figure out how to play them at the same time.
I felt like it was 4 in the morning, and I was delirious, and Annabelle & Elana were voices in my head that were helping me, were fleshing out a happy delusion.
At the cafe here in philadelphia, they’re playing “I could write a book” from the “when harry met sally” soundtrack - I was so into this in high school - fantasies of dance duets and red dresses and Harry Connick Jr. falling helplessly in love with me.
Rose & Annabelle at Hi-n-Dry May 10!
Posted on | April 24, 2009 | No Comments
Do you remember when Annabelle Chvostek and I made our youtube duet? it was the debut rosepose88-channel duet! We covered a beautiful Mason Jennings song, “If you ain’t got love.” Here it is again:
My friend Annabelle is coming back to town! We’re doing a sweet little show at the new Hi-n-Dry. Reserve your tickets now!!!. The show is an early evening show on Mother’s day, May 10 (4:30pm). And Hi-n-Dry has moved to an incredible new space: the Armory. This building was recentrly converted into an art space unlike any I’ve seen in Boston. It’s called “Arts at the Armory, check it out. Here is our poster:
SUB ROSA photos…
Posted on | April 3, 2009 | No Comments
I’ve posted some photos of the latest SUB ROSA on my smugmug page: [Click here to see them!]. They were all taken by my lovely friend Nicole Soriano. Thanks Nicole!
The show was March 28, 2009 at Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. The stranger was Valerie Thomson from Fluttr Effect, who brought her friend Vessela with her. They played cello and melodica - I mean, come on! That was a truly astonishing set. I was so floored I kind of didn’t know what to talk to them about during the interview, sorry ladies!
Guests in March were: Jennifer Kimball, Aoife O’Donovan, Dave Champagne, Anne Heaton, Catie Curtis, Chris O’Brien, Joel Ninesling, Jenee Halstead, Katie Champagne, Dave Godowsky, and dearly beloved SUB ROSA musicians Dinty Child and Billy Beard. We were joined by Simon Chrisman, Tristan and Tashina Clarridge on upright bass, cello and 5-string violin respectively. It was GORGEOUS!! One of the highlights for me was getting to play a strange little song I wrote called “papa bear” - Aoife O’Donovan helped me to make some arrangement ideas and it turned into quite the occasion at the end, almost a pop song feeling when I’d originally felt that the song was hopelessly inaccessible.
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