Jan 22, 2012

I am honoured to have won an Iguana Music Fund grant from Club Passim in Boston! This money has helped to fund the film that I made which highlights the amazing community that lives and grows in and around this great venue.

More on Club Passim CLICK

(My record release will be at Club Passim March 2, 2012 – see shows page for deets)

THANK YOU IGUANA FUND!!

Jan 7, 2012

Check out this sweet lil video made by Mitch Fillion of southernsouls.ca and featuring the sweetest dog named Nigel:

www.southernsouls.ca/rosecousins

Dec 31, 2011 – NYE

I walked all around Halifax today in the rain to just reflect and take advantage of being in one place for a few days. It’s been a big year all the way through. I’m getting a helmet for next year!

Thank you for your incredible support always and extra thanks to those who joined TEAM ROSE in the Kickstarter campaign! We made a whopping $25,130!

For kicks, here are 20 songs I listened to on repeat in 2011. Hope you see someone you don’t know here and check them out:

Hole in Your Halo – Ana Egge (Bad Blood)
Poison & Wine  – The Civil Wars (Barton Hollow)
Perth – Bon Iver (Bon Iver)
Unravel Unwind  – The Spring Standards (Would Things Be Different)
Baby’s Been Away – Jenn Grant (Honeymoon Punch)
Nothing Lasts Forever – Carmen Townsend (Waitin’ & Seein’)
Gate – Craig Cardiff (Floods and Fires)
Stealin – Catherine MacLellan (Silhouette)
The Bad in Each other – Feist – (Metals)
Blue Spotted Tail – Fleet Foxes (Helplessness Blues)
The Way it Goes – Gillian Welch (The Harrow and the Harvest)
Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People (Torches)
Bandages – Hey Rosetta (Seeds)
Tenderness – Jill Barber (Mischievous Moon)
Rumour Has It – Adele (21)
Behave – Robyn Dell’unto (I’m Here Every Night)
Under Your Skin – Ria Mae (Under Your Skin)
Still Right Here – Melissa Ferrick (Still Right Here)
Living in a Country – Rose Polenzani (The Rabbit)
Do You Remember – Ane Brun (It All Starts with One)

Happy New Year Everyone!

rose – high five

DECEMBER 15, 2011 – 3am

It has been an incredible 44 days my friends. In fact the whole year has been SO incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever reached higher and had this many people pushing and boosting me up. With 17 days left in this year I’m sure I’ll end it winded but totally fueled.

I’m so honoured and amazed at the support I’ve received on my KICKSTARTER campaign. We surpassed the goal 4 days early and the support is still rolling in. All of the posting and re-posting and tweeting and sharing and forwarding has helped to spread the word not only of my new record but of my music in general to lots of new people. I feel so lucky to have such incredible supporters. THANK YOU!

Things are starting to roll out today as you can see!! The first track on the record is available for download! I hope you like it. The actual record will be in stores FEBRUARY 28, 2012 but those of you who Kickstart me will get it in January. Tour plans are underway and 2012 is looking like it will be busy! More on that soon.

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone. If you didn’t get in on Kickstarter you have til 5PM FRIDAY DECEMBER 16th to PRE-ORDER your copy of WE HAVE MADE A SPARK! I’d certainly love to have you on the team.

I’m not prepared for Christmas but sure am for a holiday!
My very best to you with grattitide!
rose

PRE-ORDER THE NEW RECORD –
KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN starts NOW!!!

Rose & Royal Wood sing at the piano!

This was shot by The Neighbours Dog in November of 2009. WOO!
THanks to John Mills for posting it!

I’m sitting in a Chicago backyard where my friends are planting their garden in above-ground boxes. It is cool and about to rain. The US Midwest is currently plagued by tornadoes, the warnings flying across Oprah during her epic goodbye.

I remember planting the garden with my mother. I suppose it would be right around now or probably even June since it takes a while to warm up in PEI. She’d dig, hoe and rake, building perfect rows. Each seed type needed correct spacing. I remember the carrots didn’t matter as much and the corn was quite particular. The corn kernels were pink-purple, an odd colour going into the ground. Carefully she’d cover the seeds behind me and gently tap the top with the hoe. I loved this. How did she know how to make a garden? How could things so dry and small be brought back to life. Both she and the yield amazed me.

Beside the garden were bushes and bushes of raspberries. My Gramma would pick for hours. With those my mother made the best raspberry pie on earth. I treasure the times when the berries were fresh going into the pie. The glory of it, the preciousness of being present in the short season. The jam we’d eat in winter reminded us it would come again. My part time job planting at a local U-pick farm in the fall felt like a contribution to assuring its return.

Carrots, beans, peas were best, sweeter early and pulled right from the ground and stalk. Corn came later. Beets and turnips we’d take into the fall with onions, zucchini, pumpkins, squash. Pickles were made.

Gardens we plant are temporary and brand new over and over again. With the right conditions they do nothing but give but they give at their best regardless. Tornadoes, fires & bugs detroy. But each year the garden can be planted again, we rebuild. I want to build a garden. Something to be said for how many times we get to start over.

In my player: Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues, Freelance Whales – Weathervanes, Hey Rosetta – Seeds

Read and reading: Lures – Sue Goyette, Outskirts – Sue Goyette, Rolling Stone Mag

rose

ROSE WINS at the East Coast Music Awards

Female Solo Recording of the Year + SOCAN Songwriter of the Year

1:49am in Rathfriland, Northern Ireland

Some music before I attempt to sleep in this little cottage in the village of Hilltown, Northern Ireland. I searched ‘February’ in my iTunes and am listening down the list of songs with this month in their title.

February regularly proves itself a challenging month. It’s the mid winter. The weather. The waiting.

Ireland isn’t under snow. Neither was Tennesee. Half my February has been warmer than usual which has taken the weather challenge away. My other February ghosts are quiet, dare I say gone. I don’t question.

Every year end I beg for the next one to be new, not by number but by everything else. I think I’m at the helm of this one and am learning to find the wind. I ask for help. Less shame, less fear, more desire.

I love the porridge in Ireland. Just something about it. And I love that there is no shortage of tea or kindness. I think I’d like to live here for a time, learn the accent and buzz around the tiny maze roads, sleep among the sheep. Something about this place makes me want to lean in.

In my player: Jenn Grant – Honeymoon Punch, Lori McKenna-Lorraine, Carmen Townsend – Waitin & Seein, Olympic Symphonium – The City Won’t Have Time to Fight, FRED

Read and reading: True Names of Birds – Sue Goyette, Tinkers – Paul Harding

rose