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Sunday, 26 June, 2011 1:44 PM
CMA New Artist Spotlight: 'Rosehill'
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Photo
by Twinty Photography
New
country music duo Rosehill
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| By
Bob Doerschuk |
| ©
2011 CMA Close Up News Service |
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Rosehill’s chiming
guitars, sweet steel fills and wide-open duo vocals add up to a
sonic panorama that suggests long roads leading far away. But there’s
also something homey in this sound, as inviting as a seat at a table
filled with friends.
There are two good reasons
why Rosehill creates this impression throughout their debut album,
White Lines and Stars. The first has a lot to do with geography.
It was in Cypress, just off the Northwest Freeway near Houston,
that Mitch McBain and Blake Myers started a band back in 2003. The
group, Texas High Life, spent five years working the club circuit
throughout Texas, honing their alt-Country style and stage presentation.
More importantly, it
provided a vehicle for McBain and Myers to develop their synchronicity
as singers and writers. They’d been juggling THL gigs with
college classes; on finishing their academic obligations, they hunkered
down to a biweekly schedule of hatching new material. The more they
wrote, the clearer it was that they were headed toward something
centered more on their partnership.
That’s the second
reason White Lines and Stars is what it is. Produced by Radney Foster
and Jay Clementi and released by Cypress Creek Records, these 11
tracks range from spacious to infectiously upbeat, yet all of them
feature lyrics that speak directly to each listener’s experience.
The title cut and first single, which Myers wrote with Clementi
and George Ducas, unfolds like a highway under prairie skies; references
to Opry fiddles and preachers on the radio mingle in a stream of
sensory images with the rhythm of a sleeping lover’s breath.
“It ain’t the destination, babe, it’s the ride,”
they sing, bringing us back to images we've dreamed before.
As co-writers on all
but three of these tracks, McBain and Myers meet this standard of
craftsmanship consistently. And they harmonize intuitively, sing
solo parts expressively and, best of all, know how to turn a strong
lyric into an even stronger listening experience. Already, the view
from Rosehill is something to behold.
IN THEIR OWN
WORDS Q&A
MUSICAL HERO
McBAIN: “Ryan Adams.”
MYERS: “John Lennon.”
FAVORITE FOOD ON
THE ROAD
BOTH: “Whataburger hamburgers.”
WORD YOU SAY OVER
AND OVER AGAIN
BOTH: “Booyah.”
SONG YOU SING IN
THE SHOWER
McBAIN: “Anything and everything.”
MYERS: “Nothing.”
SONG YOU WISH YOU’D
WRITTEN
McBAIN: “The entire Dark Side of the Moon album, by Pink Floyd.”
MYERS: “‘Hallelujah,’ by Leonard Cohen.”
DREAM DUET PARTNER
BOTH: “Emmylou Harris”
WHAT YOU WOULD BE
IF NOT AN ARTIST
McBAIN: “Pro wakeboarder.”
MYERS: “Football coach.”
On the Web: www.Rosehill-Live.com
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