Fresh off a spot opening for Hayes Carll on tour, Caroline Rose is gearing up to release her sophomore album this fall. It was her debut though, ‘America Religious’ that got me interested in her as an Americana starlet in the making, a representation of those fifty states or at least most of them, with music as wild and untamed as the lyrics would probably be if you took enough time to dig into them.
Rustic, grassroots and rhythmic in her approach, the album takes us on a journey along long, empty highways, through dusty desert and dry plains, her instrumentation and production earthy and percussive. The intrusive twang of a dobro, the tinkle of a tamborine, the clatter of acoustic guitars and boom and crash of the drums provide us with a soundscape altogether cinematic, an America we lost to modern day technology and civilization.
Ranging from echoing one era to another, we hear the liberating sun-bleached Californian rock of ‘This Is What Livin’ Feels Like’, while ‘Notes Walking Home From Work’ gives us a folk arrangement, hurried phrasing and a personable delivery, telling one man’s story. ‘America Religious’ is just that; a collection of stories that at times simply evoke a feeling with a tumbling of words and meanings yet more often empathize with the human condition, describing it in great detail with many a complication. There is something curious about the way Caroline words things, with the truth subject to interpretation and always plenty to dig into, to analyse, to make sense of. Yet the prevailing message always comes across, such as in the simplicity of ‘Honey, I’ll Be Fine’, sat snugly against the quirky ridiculousness of ‘Six Foot Woman’, “why don’t ya pink Cadillac me? Write out a proof and subtract me?”.
Her vocals, folky in their essence and full of roughed-up soul, they skip along and stutter, known to run out of time and also known to dither, taking a long drag of a cigarette with whiskey in hand. She is expressive, charismatic and a strong storyteller, a conduit for characters and emotions. Wise beyond her years, her stream-of-consciousness style of writing dances over an empty landscape, 1960’s grainy video a reflection of these image-heavy vintage tunes that are as evocative as they are unpretentious, unassuming, real.
Caroline Rose may not be a name that has flowed into public consciousness just yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long before she is. The beauty and power of ‘American Religious’ is evidence enough and her next album will be no different.
