Support Rose’s next record and get an exclusive e.p.!

Dear friends, fans, and family,

I am going into the studio in August to make my next record! Many singers and musicians from the Sub Rosa crowd are taking part, and the plan is to record live in the studio again. I can’t wait! The album will be engineered by Matt Malikowski (who engineered and mixed “When the River Meets the Sea”).

I am starting a fan campaign to raise money to release the record! This is an opportunity to support the arts directly – the money will go towards paying the musicians who join me in the studio, as well as mastering and duplication costs. And just like NPR, you can donate on many levels. Everyone who donates will get a signed copy of the record well in advance of the release date. People who donate on a major level ($50 or above) will also get an exclusive e.p. of never-before released solo acoustic and demo versions of songs. Here are the details!

1. The “Cornfield” Level – donations of $30 or more
- A signed copy of the record in advance of the release
- public thanks on my website at time of release
- and the knowledge that you helped to make this happen, because every dollar counts!

2. The “highest hopes” level – donations of $50 or more
for this you get:
- A digital download of the bonus e.p!
- 1 signed copy of the record in advance of the release!
- Your name in the thank yous on the record!

3. The “like a miracle” level – donations of $100 and above
for this you get:
- Your name as one of the Executive Producers of the record!
- A physical copy of the BONUS E.P. with handmade artwork!
- A digital download of the bonus e.p.
- 1 signed copy of the record and a digital download of the record in advance of the release!
- My deepest thanks!

If you are not in a position to donate, we will start collecting pre-orders near the release date, so stay tuned. and Thanks!

Click the “donate” button below to support this record! Review the amounts above before you enter your donation amount! I’ll send you an email confirming your donation level and how you would like your name to appear in thanks yous, etc. THANKS!


Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Grand Rapids cancelled, Secret Portage show celebrated.

Hello everyone!

First of all, the Grand Rapids show that was happening on July 14 is cancelled, due to people all being on vacation at the same time. Why didn’t you at least invite us to your summer homes, Michigan fans?? Don’t you know we love to swim?!

and second of all, I’ve been having a blast with Anne on this trip. It’s a little crazy to travel around playing shows when every show is so different – and sometimes we just slide into position and play, and sometimes we wrestle with sound issues for hours, and sometimes there are flute players who join us for a song onstage (DC, Pittsburgh) – and I’ve held so many babies, so many beautiful babies, all of them goodnatured and smiley, some smile from looking at my face and some smile for mysterious digestive reasons, but I love to hold them.

But every night it is a true pleasure to share music with Anne – she really gives her spirit to the music, it’s a beautiful thing to see and be a part of. preposition at the end of my sentence.

Also, there was a private party in Portage, Indiana on Saturday night, and Anne and I played it – they called it “mini-ravinia”, a nod to the gorgeous outdoor concert park in the Chicago suburbs. We were treated like royalty! Our names were puffy-inked onto hundreds of beer cozies! It was such a fun time – thanks to Lisa and Pat and here’s a few pics from the trip (including the beer cozies and our vip parking spot marker).

The beautiful midwestern sky as we drove through Ohio:

The VIP parking at the show in Portage:

The beer cozy they made for the Portage show:

And the inimitable Maureen Andary, who hosted the DC house concert, performing an opening set. Thanks Maureen!

Posted in News & Updates, Newsletter Archive, Photos, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

SUB ROSA this week: ANIMALS


SUB ROSA, the secret society of Rose Polenzani, friends and strangers is happening this Thursday, May 27th 9:30pm at Lizard Lounge in cambridge, ma, and featuring:

Rose Polenzani, Dave Godowsky, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Jess Tardy, Amy Correia, David Champagne, Laura Cortese, Andy Santospago, Kimber Ludiker, Antje Duvekot, and and Joe McMahon on the bass. Anais Mitchell may make it to the show this month!

Lizard Lounge is at 1667 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge,
and a 21+ club.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Hadestown

I have a new file in my filing cabinet, called “Hadestown,” and in it I put all the hours and papers and feeling lucky to have been a part of it for a couple of nights at Club Passim (april 15-16) – and the note Anais Mitchell included with her CD when she sent it to me.

Anne Heaton, Melissa Myers and I were the three Fates, Peter Mulvey was Orpheus, Anais was Eurydice. Tim Gearan was Hades and Kris Delmhorst was Persephone, and Dinty Child was Hermes. Michael Chorney and the Hadestown orchestra provided those gorgeous arrangements. This was definitely the most people I’ve ever seen on the Passim stage – Matt Smith was rubbing his hands with glee! Almost all the songs were caught for youtube, by a user named jbos6 (click here to go to his Hadestown video playlist).

A fellow named Keith Bergendorff posted a kind of internet document of the show – complete with an embedded mp3 player with all the songs! He says he “joyfully mixed and mastered” them. I borrowed his player for this page:

Almost every background vocal was originally sung by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and since I am a big fan of his, I relished the task of mapping out his ideas to stage at Passim. Honestly, it was all about me, my midi keyboard, and Finale software last month. All the harmonies in the Fates’ songs (“when the chips are down” and “nothing changes”) were set by the Haden triplets.

It’s like 32 degrees outside today, but I’m remembering now that we rehearsed out in Dinty’s yard on the days before the show, we were singing under a tree and there were birds singing.

Read the Globe article about Hadestown at Boston.com.

Posted in News & Updates, Rose's Blog, Video | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Freaky Friday SUB ROSA is coming

Good evening. I’m so behind the 8-ball on my promotional activities, but it’s only because I’m kind of trying too hard.

Here is another stop-animation advertisement for SUB ROSA – starring Anne Heaton!!!! This Freaky Friday idea is Jess Tardy’s – we are going to cover each other~~!!!! Confirmed guests include: Dinty Child, Katie and David Champagne, Antje Duvekot, Anne Heaton, Neil Cleary, Zack Hickman, Melissa Harper, Jess Tardy, Joel Ninesling, Andy Santospago, and….

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

folk bad ass.

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

Posted in News & Updates, Press Clippings, Rose's Blog | Tagged | 3 Comments

best of 2009

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Rose is nominated for “Folk Act of the Year” 2009! Vote now!

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

New (old) live (beautiful!) footage…

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

Posted in Media, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Video – “Broken Wings”

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!

Posted in Media, News & Updates, Rose's Blog, Video | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment