Meredith Rose

The ground has disappeared, currently covered in over two feet of white, crystallized water. The wind lashes at bared skin. The nights are long, and dark, and ever so cold. But soon enough it will all melt away in the Spring warmth. The Earth will once again explode in the germinating brilliance of green hues and birdsong. In the interim we are left to find things to cling to for mental warmth, something we can wrap our proverbial arms around and dream silently of comforting sunshine and the smell of fresh cut grass. Connecticut’s Meredith Rose has delivered a four track EP capable of melting the most frozen of moments.

Rose was a relative newcomer to the CT music scene when she popped up as a surprise finalist at the Connecticut Music Awards under the Best Singer/Songwriter category in 2014. Roughly nine months later she’s delivered her first musical child in debut EP, Sow, a catchy array of heartfelt, acoustic indie pop. Rose won’t be surprising anyone if she shows up as a finalist at the 2015 version of the CT Music Awards. These songs will certainly see to that.

Upon first listen, Sow is the type of EP filled with the upbeat, yet stripped down pop songs you’d find as hidden gems in something like an old episode of Gilmore Girls. It’s Rose, her guitar, and her beautiful voice backed by a fairly standard array of session instrumentation. This isn’t an album want for some mad scientist mixing and matching instruments for some sort of auditory tomfoolery. It’s not necessary because Rose and her songwriting carry each tune like the Pied Piper of pop music, leading her listeners to the Folk side of town. With each foot-tapping hook and each longing vocalization, Rose sinks her musical talons right into the very soul of what a pop song can and should be.

It’s not easy to write good pop-based music these days. The pressures to try and obtain a certain sound, a certain style, can be soul-crushing, especially when chasing that golden ring. But artists like Rose are a breath of fresh air when it comes to pop-centric music. Here you have an artist who is clearly comfortable enough in her craft to allow her influences to shine through and simply write songs that can stand on their own without studio trickery. The folk and indie rock elements that Rose allows to infiltrate her sound help convey the delicate whimsy, the alluring sunshine of it all. This is feel good music, music that even in dire lyrical moments still moves the listener to a better place than where they were when they started. The challenge has been issued for anyone to not find a smile and the general kindness amongst the curmudgeon veneer of life when a track like “Free” is bopping around in your head for days after each listen.

The lone drawback of this EP is its brevity. At only 18 minutes in length you’re sure to be left with the same sense of longing for Rose’s musical tenderness as you are for the warm embrace of Springtime when the first snows fall from the heavens. The hope here is that like Spring, Rose returns fuller and even more beautiful the next time around, although she’s set the bar fairly high for herself this first time out of the gates. Sow will be available to the general public on the fitting date of February 14. For now you can experience the teaser video for the track “Free”. - Lonesome Noise

There is an irony to music in the early 21st century: The record labels are dying, and yet there is more music being recorded than ever before. Frequently, even the minor production details and sound-quality that once would have distinguished a major-label recording from an indie recording are diminishing. More and more, it is becoming difficult to ascertain the origin of a song by ear alone.

Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to Connecticut singer-songwriter Meredith Rose, and her EP, “Sow,” released earlier this year. The album is simply Rose and an acoustic guitar, along with Jim Chapdelaine’s production. But the result is a small collection of songs that would sound completely at home on commercial radio, in the vein of Colbie Caillat and that more adult brand of pop music. It’s music you’d expect to be the song you actually liked on a romantic comedy movie soundtrack. It’s not challenging music, but it’s instantly likable and engaging. It feels familiar without feeling stale.

Rose — who will be performing at 8 p.m. Sept. 5 at the Vanilla Bean Café in Pomfret — has excellent phrasing and a sweet and expressive voice. The opening number, “I Will Fall,” is a fairly conventional love song, but it shows off Rose’s ability to change the tone and pace of a song. She exhibits a sense of control over the song, which a lot of similar singers seem to lack, and when she drags out the notes on the end of each line on the chorus — “It’s dangerous what you’re doing to me/But I don’t mind it at all/With you, in love, I will fall" — the effect is alluring and sensual.

Listening to her song “Free” — which would be the radio hit if such phrases had any meaning anymore — it’s clear Rose has a knack for vibrant, hook-laden music that’s extremely catchy. Her lyrics lean toward the simple. On “Free,” she sings, “All alone and I don’t care/I’m gonna go someday, go somewhere/But it’s hard, hard Being free,” which is a bit straightforward, but certainly does the job.

Mostly, Rose relies on tone to convey the emotion’s latent in the music. “Free” is a song with which it’s easy to get carried away. The following song, “Let Me,” uses vocal restraint and slower tempo to create a sense of yearning. It’s not a complicated song, but then, it doesn’t have to be. The power’s not in lyrics such as “I want to hold you/I want to help you/I want to love you, love you/If you’d let me, let me,” it’s in the feeling that burbles underneath them, and in that, Rose is immensely successful.

The tiny album ends, appropriately enough, with “The End,” a moving and cleverly structured breakup song. Throughout, Rose shifts the blame for the impending separation, switching back and forth from “This is all my fault/I wanna start again” and “This is all your fault/I don’t want to start again.” Either way, though, it’s the end: The two people in the relationship have grown so far apart that, “now we don’t even know how to kiss.” There’s a sense of desolation in the song, a sense of something lost that sticks with you well after the too-short album has ended. - Telegram

From the hills of eastern Connecticut to the shores of Australia, Meredith Rose is sowing the seeds of her musical talent. With a new EP entitled SOW being released on February 14th, Rose has traveled extensively from her home in the Storrs area of the nutmeg state to promote her work and on Wednesday she visited the studios of WAPJ in Torrington to discuss her music on the Homegrown Show with Jay Roberts of Performance Hub.
SOW features 4 quality songs curated by Rose herself who culled through her expansive repertoire of original work to craft a cohesive, well structured EP. All of the songs are catchy and the second track FREE in particular should get some airplay on traditional radio. It may be that one’s favorite song on the album could entirely depend on the perspective the listener brings with them at the moment they hear it.
“I Will Fall” was the first song Rose penned to completion so it is fitting it is the first song on the album. The beat and harmonies are infectious and it’s a perfect introduction to the artist. There are multiple influences here, part indie-pop, part Americana. The song feels like Spring, the beginning of something new.
“FREE” as previously mentioned might be considered a “single” on the album. If the first song was SPRING, FREE is definitely SUMMER. An early release video of the song features Rose at the beach and it’s happy even when the words say that sometimes it is “hard to be free”.
“Let Me” is a ballad. There is a longing in the melody as she sings, “Flooded, but I am learning to swim Desperate to find a way in”. Lyrically the song could be understood in multiple contexts during many points of time in a relationship but musically, this is the autumn of the album, a hope of a harvest for a love that is sown.
Fittingly, the album closes with the song “The End“. I absolutely love the production here. The background harmonies build and accentuate the vocals as Rose cries, “This time, Things will be different, things will be different”
As with any winter, there is a end but always the promise of a Spring on the horizon.

Multiple Emmy Award winner Jim Chapdelaine produced the recording with Rose and the professionalism is self evident. The crescendo of “Let Me”, the backing tracks of “The End”, the happiness found in the beats of “Free” and “I Will Fall” never eclipse the strongest element of the album which is Meredith Rose’s vocals and point of view. - Nutmeg Chatter