Cross-eyed Rosie creates acoustic music that acknowledges their bluegrass roots while incorporating pop, jazz and funk in this inventive and emotionally stirring music. Often dubbed “blues-grass”, the masterful and beautiful music created by this quintet comes from the heart.
Rosie, composed of five talented, high-energy individuals captivates audiences across the west while pushing the boundaries of Americana and folk music. The band’s rise to the top of the acoustic circuit is not surprising after hearing their brand new and uniquely original album, “Adjusted”. The album comes across with a “live” feel from tunes that have been road tested to audiences and penned by all five members of the band.
After four years of touring clubs, theaters and festivals, Rosie has come into its own through wonderful writing, masterful musicianship and driving energy that has audiences coming back for more.
Cross-eyed Rosie has gone through some changes since they first made a splash in the bluegrass/newgrass, jamband and folk communities. To maintain the respect of these sometimes-conflicting groups of music lovers might have seemed challenging enough but on the strength of their first release CER made it look effortless. In their first 2 years they found themselves playing well-received sets at national festivals like the legendary, all-indoors Wintergrass festival in their own Pacific Northwest and winning a slot in the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition.
Things might have gone on Rosily enough when the band was taken surprise by the departure of co-lead singer Zoë Kaplan. In the face of this change, the remaining five members - singer Alli Longstreth, mandolin player Lincoln Crockett, fiddler Ellie Holzemer, bass player Jason Mellow and guitarist Jon Ostrom - decided to continue to keep at it and build on the momentum they'd developed with their audience and with each other. The band put its entire collective focus on completing a second album.
Really the first for the group as a five-piece, the new Cross-eyed Rosie finds Crockett stepping up to take Kaplan's place, creating one of the few bands to have dual, equal-partner male and female lead singers. The album features songwriting credits from every band-member, including the shape-shifting Train from Ostrom, Longstreth leading the haunting Cowboy, two fiery new original fiddle tunes from Holzemer and the heel-kicker Little Switzerland from Mellow.
To make this record happen Rosie set out to capture the excitement of the infectious fun they have playing together live. After an extensive search for the right collaborator, they chose Northwest traditional bluegrass stalwart Dale Adkins and holed up with him at his then-new Adam's Ridge Studios in July of 2006. The band recorded live with as few overdubs as possible, resulting in a high-energy, tight and natural feel.
In August later that year, with the cd unmixed and its release still months away, Cross-eyed Rosie, came full circle and appeared at the Northwest String Summit, a Yonder Mountain inspired festival. The band, scarcely known by the headliners, made a serious impression and garnered a midday slot. They continued their genre-defying crowd pleasing and roused the festival with an inspired set that turned them into instant festival celebrities. When Adjusted was released in November, the celebration shows in Portland and Seattle exceeded the venues' capacities.
Cross-eyed Rosie is currently working on new tunes, continuing to find ways to reinvent the sounds they love. But whether or not they ever change, they're already Adjusted.
