Jack Rose
Jack Rose was an American guitarist originally from Virginia and currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A founding member of the drone/noise band Pelt, Rose is currently best known for his solo acoustic guitar work.
Jack Rose has been a prolific recording artist in his relatively short career, with albums, EPs, and compilation tracks on no less than ten record labels. His depth of knowledge in the traditions of blues, ragtime and Eastern music are complimented by the avant-garde and experimental spirit of Pelt. Comparisons to American primitive guitarist John Fahey are frequent, but Rose has been praised by reviewers, fans, and contemporaries alike for rising to the challenge of playing in a unique style despite his affection for music originating in decades past.
Jack Rose was an American guitarist originally from Virginia and currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A founding member of the drone/noise band Pelt, Rose is currently best known for his solo acoustic guitar work.
Jack Rose has been a prolific recording artist in his relatively short career, with albums, EPs, and compilation tracks on no less than ten record labels. His depth of knowledge in the traditions of blues, ragtime and Eastern music are complimented by the avant-garde and experimental spirit of Pelt. Comparisons to American primitive guitarist John Fahey are frequent, but Rose has been praised by reviewers, fans, and contemporaries alike for rising to the challenge of playing in a unique style despite his affection for music originating in decades past.
Jack Rose
John Coltrane died at age 40, and in retrospect it seems as if the intensity of activity in his last years, the sheer torrent of notes, was an attempt at purging the music from his soul before it was too late. The guitarist Jack Rose died at 38, in 2009, and listening back to his catalog one has a similar notion. Like Coltrane, Jack Rose’s last years were marked by a shimmering intensity, an outpouring of his spirit, onto audiences and records. I believe Jack Rose felt the duty of preservation b…
I Do Play Rock And Roll
Jack Rose was a practitioner of his own unique brand of modern Appalachia, a master of the steel string, whether finger picking or playing with a slide, Rose can coax amazing sounds from a guitar, and all by his lonesome create lush steel string guitarscapes, that range from haunting and mysterious to folky and familiar.
This lp originally released in 2008 gathers up three long live tracks, all quite different. The first is a track from Kensington Blues, a big favorite around here, recorded…
Dr. Ragtime & His Pals
Back in the day, a new Jack Rose record was always cause for celebration around here. Along with James Blackshaw, Ilyas Ahmed, Richard Bishop and a few others, Rose was one of the new modern masters of the steel string guitar, helping to reinvent and redefine neo-Appalachia or modern folk or whatever you want to call it.Dr. Ragtime from 2008, features more of Rose's gorgeous steel string beauty, gossamer sheets of buzzing shimmer, droning ragas, traditional bluegrass, slippery slide, melancholy …
Raag Manifestos
Includes download code. "Part of a collaboration with Jack Rose's estate and Three Lobed Records to restore all of his LPs to print, VHF presents new vinyl editions of the celebrated guitarist's first three solo albums, newly cut by John Golden Mastering from the original source material. Originally issued on LP by Eclipse Records between 2002-04, these releases chart an eclectic, more experimental approach left behind as his technique and compositions became more refined and deliberate…
Red Horse, White Mule
Includes download code. "Part of a collaboration with Jack Rose's estate and Three Lobed Records to restore all of his LPs to print, VHF presents new vinyl editions of the celebrated guitarist's first three solo albums, newly cut by John Golden Mastering from the original source material. Originally issued on LP by Eclipse Records between 2002-04, these releases chart an eclectic, more experimental approach left behind as his technique and compositions became more refined and deliberate on…
Opium Music
Includes download code. "Part of a collaboration with Jack Rose's estate and Three Lobed Records to restore all of his LPs to print, VHF presents new vinyl editions of the celebrated guitarist's first three solo albums, newly cut by John Golden Mastering from the original source material. Originally issued on LP by Eclipse Records between 2002-04, these releases chart an eclectic, more experimental approach left behind as his technique and compositions became more refined and deliberate on…
Ragged And Right
LP edition: Link Wray became the thematic soundtrack for a 2008 JACK ROSE tour with D. CHARLES SPEER & THE HELIX. Jack got so excited by the vibes emanating from these songs that he thought to break with his usual acoustic approach & enlist the Speer band to join in some unhinged & unrepentant fun in the studio. Recorded using an all live, no overdub approach, a gleaming bottle of Buffalo Trace helped shepherd them through the night. Feat. the original Helix lineup in peak form & lap steel & Ros…
Luck In The Valley
LP version, presented in an old-style tip-on jacket with a hand-pasted letterpressed cover, limited edition...Like all pre-war recordings and all of Rose's releases, this album was recorded live. It was not created using overdubs but rather by recording a few 'takes' and selecting the best performance out of those. Rose stated, 'I wanted the songs to have an immediacy and spontaneity as they were being recorded. All the musicians chosen for the record know how to play the songs withou…
s/t
Raw and rocking collaboration between Jack Rose and the Black Twigs with some of the most swinging, hard-hitting string music waxed in many a decade. Rose’s solo playing has always had a tough edge, with his prodigious technique often employed in the service of dropping right-hand bombs – his use of a thumbpick originates from his years of duets with Twig Mike Gangloff, struggling to make his guitar heard over Gangloff’s crashing banjo. The front line of Rose and Gangloff’s strings are joined by…
Kensington Blues
Available now for the first time on vinyl, Kensington Blues is the fourth full-length release from Jack Rose and his most diverse outing by far. The album is an inspired mix of styles and sounds, with straight ragtime, heavy 12-string, and that sweet, sweet Weissenborn lap guitar all checking in. Honed during endless touring in 2004, the repertoire here is delivered with maximum authority in a series of first-take performances recorded in early 2005.
The Black Dirt Sessions
Displays fully honed examples of all of Rose's various styles & themes - traditional, raga & ragtime. "Cross The North Fork" - a 13-minute revisiting of a track 1st laid down on the great "Kensington Blues" is a winding, thoroughly engrossing journey. It is a welcome neighbor to the album's other spendid joys ranging from the jaunty & infectious "Fishtown Flower" to the pensive & appropriate melancholy punch of "Box Of Pine." Limited to 2000 copies on 180g RTI vinyl.
Two Originals Of...
Debut solo CD from Jack Rose, combining his much-lauded Eclipse LP's Red Horse, White Mule and Opium Musick. While Red Horse, White Mule is generally recognized as in the Takoma-inspired tradition, Jack adds his own exotic influences and recognizable touch - whether abstracting on the modal epic "Red Horse" or the rough slide stylings of "The Colonel's Blues." Opium Musick is an eclectic collection with pieces for 12 string (the percussive and dark "Black Pearls), 6 string, and lap guitar. The t…
Dr. Ragtime And His Pals
Jack Rose's new full length, Dr. Ragtime And His Pals, coupled with a reissue of last year's self-titled CD/LP housed in a custom designed and fabricated off-set printed card cover with j-card style obi (there is also a jewel case version on the UK label Beautiful Happiness). Limited edition of 1000. "The Appalachian Trail runs 2175 miles south from Mount Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia, though there are those who want to stretch it further, into Alabama, because the mountains …
Dr Ragtime & Pals / Self Titled
Domestic version of Jack Rose's new full length, Dr. Ragtime And His Pals, coupled with a reissue of last year's self-titled CD/LP housed in a custom designed and fabricated off-set printed card cover with j-card style obi (there is also a jewel case version on the UK label Beautiful Happiness). Limited edition of 1000.