Johanna Rose — 14 December 2022 on Rocket Shop Radio Hour
Johanna Rose joined host Tom Proctor on ‘Rocket Shop,’ Big Heavy World’s weekly local Vermont music radio hour on 105.9 FM The Radiator. Check out their newest release at johannarose.bandcamp.com
On Wednesday, December 14th, host Tom Proctor was joined by Johanna Rose, a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, for a solo acoustic set featuring songs from their recently released EP, ‘Can’t Love You From the Ground.’
Although they grew up in Wisconsin, Rose’s early experiences visiting family in Vermont and spending time there shaped their identity from a young age; they frequently told people that they were “half jewish, half Vermonter.” In their adult life, they moved to Vermont during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when jobs for live sound engineers and touring musicians— Johanna’s main sources of income —largely dried up. Their mother had bought land in Vermont; Johanna took these COVID-era circumstances as an opportunity to move there and build a treehouse, their current place of residence. They are inspired by the experience of living in rural Vermont, where summers are full of music and laughter and “winter is something you have to survive.”
The treehouse has also served as a home recording studio, both for Rose’s band Lavendula and, more recently, for most of their solo EP. Their experience as a sound engineer enabled them to get high quality recordings from their home studio setup, and also allowed them to seamlessly incorporate remotely recorded instrumentation, like tracks for pedal steel and fiddle, which were contracted from musician friends all over the country. “There’s a vibe that I like, and I think it kind of glues it together… If you have the sounds you want, you can create a room… preferably, you just want that room to exist, and you’re all in it together, but it’s a great alternative.”
Rose also enlisted the help of their brother in mixing many of the songs on the EP; “I finally was like, ok, you know what? I can play it, I can record it, I can write it; I should probably let someone else also do some mixing on it, ’cause I was driving myself crazy.” While to some extent a collaborative effort, the project, like the treehouse, is indicative of Johanna Rose’s handy, do-it-yourself attitude. “I like to record my own music and chop my own wood.”
The first track of the project, which also kicked off Wednesday’s Rocket Shop set, is a moody, contemplative tune called “What If I Told You,” which is especially notable for its powerful imagery, exhibited in lines like “I can bury the hatchet / doused in gasoline, / I can light up a match / watch my heart grow wings.” The union of lyrical moments like this and airy, minor melodies contributes to a spellbinding effect and an overall very compelling song.
Coming up, plans are forming for Johanna to do a tour of the East Coast: “It occurred to me that I should tour down to New Orleans, about three weeks ago,” they said. They are planning shows in places like New York City and Nashville along the way, which are “the places I really want to go… that’s how I’m doing it… no reason or rhyme — to anything, really.” Laughing, they added, “Nothing really makes sense, if you think about it, so I’m just trying to do exactly what I want.”
As tour dates and locations solidify, you’ll find information and updates on their Facebook page or their website. ‘Can’t Love you From the Ground’ and other releases from Johanna Rose are available for streaming and download on Bandcamp.
Writeup by Gideon Parker
Monochrome photo by Abbey BK