ARTiST : Rosie Thomas
ALBUM : These Friends Of Mine
LABEL : Nettwerk Records
GENRE : Indie
RELEASE : 2007-02-27
STREET : 2007-03-13
ENCODER : LAME v3.97 -V2 --vbr-new
QUALiTY : 164kbps avg / 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo
SiZE : 40.95 MB
PLAYTiME : 00:32:56
+ TRACK LiSTiNG +
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[#] [Track Name] [Time]
1. If This City Never Sleeps 2:00
2. Why Waste More Time? 3:46
3. The One I Love 2:53
4. Much Farther To Go 4:19
5. Paper Doll 3:52
6. Kite Song 2:51
7. Songbird 3:09
8. All The Way To New York City 2:40
9. Say Hello 2:21
10. These Friends Of Mine 5:05
32:56
+ RELEASE iNFORMATiON +
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This album has been available on iTunes since December 2006, but this is the CD
version which is released in stores on March 13th, 2007.
One night in suburban Detroit, a twelve-year-old Rosie Thomas lay sleepless in
her bed, obsessively dwelling on what she perceived to be her lack of life
purpose. Then, well after 2 AM, it suddenly hit her. She sprung up and raced
down the hall. ôDaddy, Daddy, I know what my mission in life is,ö Rosie
exclaimed, poking her father. ôI just want to entertain people.ö
Fast forward one decade later, recently transplanted to Seattle and frustrated
with her decision to attend theater school, Rosie sat one night voicing her
disappointment to new friend, singer-songwriter Damien Jurado, when he promptly
turned to her and said, So, Rosie came to the city, trading the stiff route of
producer-led studio recording from her previous album for the modest confines of
a Brooklyn apartment with Sufjan and another songwriter friend, Denison Witmer.
They set no deadlines or official recording schedule. The group of friends
simply set up one or two microphones in a bedroom, living room, or kitchen and
captured the songs as they happened.
ôWhether you are a musician, painter, or whatever, there is a passion that
sometimes gets lost because all of the sudden you have to clock-in or have
deadlines. I sort of wanted to get back to that time when I played music for
nothing,ö Rosie says.
Most of the songs were recorded immediately after Rosie wrote them, with Denison
and Sufjan scrambling to quickly write their own parts before Rosie herself
forgot the songs. The laid-back gatherings, conducted off and on over two years,
sparked a healthy creative process. By the end, Rosie realized that the
recording had produced something completely unintended, an album.
Eventually, those songs, hastily recorded outside of a proper studio, became the
aptly titled These Friends of Mine, her fourth release. The recording process
was so liberating that RosieÆs even left the proper label practice behind,
opting instead to release the album on her own imprint through Nettwerk Records.
Possessing a homespun familiarity, many of the songs on These Friends of Mine
are characteristic of RosieÆs other work, with her fragile falsetto lilting over
sparse piano arrangements, like on ôKite Song,ö a hushed, near-lullaby that
attempts to find the supernatural in simplicity.
RosieÆs music typically exists in the intangible realm of memory where childhood
idylls meet adult expectations, and this album is largely no different. But
These Friends of Mine finds Rosie more often channeling the concrete û the
actual concrete, the streets and sidewalks of New York City.
ôNew York has always been this obsession of mine. So, that makes it all that
much easier to write about. ItÆs just such a huge theme, especially when you are
actually living there like I was when we were recording,ö Rosie says.
Songs like ôMuch Farther To Goö and ôNew York Cityö reflect RosieÆs city-centric
approach, where lightly strummed guitars meet whispered vocal harmonies imbued
with a sense of plaintive longing.
But more than location, the songs and their origins emit friendship. Co-written
with Sufjan, ôSay Helloö came to life as the pair thumbed through a hymnal for
inspiration while seeking to pen their own version of the many call and response
standards.
Even the three cover songs on the record were chosen because of the kinship they
embodied. While on tour with Rosie, Denison covered Fleetwood MacÆs ôSongbirdö
and Sufjan performed a re-imagined rendition of R.E.M.Æs ôOne I Love.ö Rosie
recorded her own versions of the songs to pay tribute to both of them, also
including a cover of DenisonÆs own song, ôPaper Doll.ö
Well over a decade ago, a teenaged Rosie knew that being an entertainer was
meaningless û even impossible û outside of a fostering community.
ôWhen I woke my Dad up that night, even then I understood that you couldnÆt be
an entertainer unless you did it for the benefit of other people. ThatÆs just a
valuable lesson I have to keep reminding myself,ö Rosie explains.
And for Rosie that reminder took a familiar incarnation, a gathering of friends,
collaborative creation, and, in the end, a sincere celebration of music and
people called These Friends of Mine.
Enjoy!