PHOTOS

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BIO

September 27, 2024 – Acclaimed Canadian folk singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rose Cousins has announced her new album, Conditions of Love, Vol. 1, will be released on March 14, 2025 (pre-save HERE). With this news, she shares her uplifting new single and one she calls the album’s cornerstone, “I Believe in Love (and it’s very hard),” along with her April 2025 headline tour dates across Canada.

Listen to “I Believe in Love (and it’s very hard)” : https://rosecousins.ffm.to/ibelieveinlove

On her new album, Rose holds her listeners’ hands as she guides them on a journey through the "conditions of love." Ever the emotional explorer, the Nova-Scotia-based artist seeks truth, in all its imperfection, in the depths of humans’ most complicated of emotions: love. The journey results in a striking clarity, and it’s the gift of that clarity that brings on surprising tears.  

Rose shares, “Love feels great and makes us ridiculous. It's tiring and intense, joyful and devastating. Falling in love, being in love and staying in love are all such different things. Being human is emotionally complicated enough without attempting to relate to another who is just as complex, and in the most vulnerable of arenas: romance. Love is wondrous and absurd (and very hard). Humour helps.” 

Co-produced with trusted friend and longtime bandmate Joshua Van Tassel, Conditions of Love, Vol. 1 sees Rose return to her first love, the piano. “Piano is where I feel the most connected. It’s the best partner in expressing the emotion I’m mining,” she shares. She first introduced the upcoming body of work with the gorgeous, piano-driven ballad “Forget Me Not,” followed by the slow-burning, nostalgic “Borrowed Light.” 

Rose Cousins’ songwriting plumbs the depths of the human condition. Her work has garnered her two JUNO Awards (2013’s We Have Made a Spark & 2021’s Bravado), two Canadian Folk Music Awards, eleven East Coast Music Awards and one Grammy nomination (2018’s Natural Conclusion), along with praise from the likes of the CBC, No Depression, LA Times, Associated Press, Billboard, Folk Alley, and NPR, who raved “Cousins’ disarmingly fluid vocal tone has the ability to convey the most internalized feelings without an ounce of fuss.” Over the years, she has shared stages with Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jann Arden, Kathleen Edwards, Joe Henry and Anais Mitchell, and her music has fittingly underscored scenes from notable TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Fire Country, Batwoman and Heartland. 

Stay tuned for more….

VIDEOS

AWARDS

2021 JUNO Award - Contemporary Roots Album of the Year // 2021 East Coast Music Awards - Contemporary Roots Album of the Year, Solo Recording of the Year // 2018 JUNO Awards – nominated Songwriter of the Year // 2018 GRAMMY Awards – nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical // 2018 East Coast Music Awards – Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Folk Recording of the Year // 2018 International Folk Awards – nominated for Artist of the Year // 2017 Nova Scotia Music Awards – Americana Album of the Year, Solo Recording of the Year // 2017 The Coast’s Best of Halifax – Best Artist to Enjoy Quietly // 2013 JUNO Award – Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Solo // 2013 East Coast Music Awards – Songwriter of the Year, Solo Recording of the Year, Folk Recording of the Year // 2012 NPR’s Top 10 Folk & Americana Albums of the Year // 2012 Canadian Folk Music Award – Contemporary Singer of the Year // 2012 Nova Scotia Music Awards – Folk Record of the Year // 2012 Polaris Music Prize – Long List Nominated // 2011 East Coast Music Awards – Female Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year // 2011 Music PEI – Rooted to the Island Award // 2010 Canadian Folk Music Award – Contemporary Singer of the Year // 2008 East Coast Music Awards – Female Recording of the Year // 2007 Mountain Stage Newsong Contest Winner // 2007 Nova Scotia Music Awards – Best Folk Recording, Galaxie Rising Star Award // 2007 PEI Music Awards – Best Folk Recording, Female Vocalist of the Year

QUOTES

“Her ability to see through the pain and bleakness of the world to find the light that connects us all proves that she indeed has a fire that burns in her soul and catches to her music, art, and the world she’s so powerfully conscious of.” – No Depression

“The simplicity of these songs is deceiving; as sparse as they feel, her voice draws you in until you realize you are at the heart of the storm.” – The Guardian

“Cousins has a disarmingly fluid vocal tone and an ability to convey the most internalized emotions — disappointment, grief, resolve, forbearance — without an ounce of fuss.” – NPR Music

“deeply caresses her exquisite vocals through a dozen songs that form an exploratory, intimate meditation on the mysteries of being human: identity, fraility, relationships, the nature of love and spiritual connection” – LA Times

“When Rose Cousins sings she soars and swoops, never to show off but always in service to the song” – The Washington Post / AP

“Rose Cousins strips songs to their pointed and somber essence” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

>>> ALL PRESS

PAST TOUR HIGHLIGHTS

On-stage Interview with Suzanne Vega at Stanfest, 2019 // JUNO Songwriter’s Circle, 2018 // Special guest of Patty Griffin US, July/Aug 2018 // Special guest of Joe Henry: Thrum Tour through the US, December 2017 // Special guest of Ron Sexsmith & the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for the Canada 150 celebrations in Nathan Phillips Square, 2017 // Special guest of Mary Chapin Carpenter through the US, October 2015 and June-November 2016 // Special guest of Lori McKenna, February 2015 // Special guest of Anais Mitchell, October 2014 // Special guest of Jann Arden album release tour, September 2014 // Woodford Folk Festival in Woodford, Australia, 2013