THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Anyone with a bill to pay has felt it. That moment when the keys are in the ignition, the highway is wide, and the question is right on the tip of our tongue: what if we leave it all behind and just drive?
Singer-songwriter Rose Gerber’s latest release, Untraveled Highway, is a five-song love letter to the wonder and peril of possibility, a nostalgic escape into the freedom of youth that somehow never quite abandons its grownup wisdom. Held by a galloping guitar, eclectic Americana rhythms, and Rose’s distinctly ’90s femme-oracle tone, Untraveled Highway lovingly buckles impending middle age into the passenger seat and hits the road. Fusing the earnestness of early Neil Young, a dash of The Byrds’ introspection, and a 1970s Southern rock heartbeat, these songs are a much-needed road trip companion for a generation wrestling with what it might mean to settle down.
“Life has always felt like a struggle for me between the urge to be untethered and free and the need for stability and comfort,” Gerber says. “I found it funny when people called me a free spirit. Like, what did that imply about them? As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned the tough balance we all strike in the reality of 9-5s and pragmatism. This set of songs is an exploration of how that dichotomy has shown up for me and those around me throughout my life.”
The Opegon songwriter is an intrepid roots explorer, grafting country, folk, rock, alt-rock, and alt-country into an ageless, ache-laden sound. As a writer, Rose is both thick-skinned and delicate, shape-shifting from heartland rock to heartbreaking balladry with unpretentious ease. Her songs are snapshots of everyday living that capture meaning in the mundane, courageous letters-to-self that spill wisdom so real it feels almost accidental. It’s that unflinching tone that earns her comparisons to Natalie Merchant, Gillian Welch and Patty Griffin: A turn-of-the-millenium voice backed by the high-lonesome pedal steel whine, Doc Martins and cowboy boots, each in their turn.
Rose cut her musical teeth in New England’s folk circuit before packing up and driving west to Portland in 2008, accompanied by a stack of burned country CDs — a goodbye gift from an old friend. The carefully curated vintage tunes wrapped a deep love for country music into the foundation of her new life, and she’s been weaving classic country elements into her songs ever since.
In true PNW fashion, Rose’s band was born in a garage during the rainy season of 2017, a labor that consisted of off-color jokes, the blue-ribbon twang of their trio of guitars (pedal steel, acoustic and electric), and plenty of wrangling in her trademark rock-tumbled alto. Together, the quintet is a melting pot of essential American sounds, bringing a high lonesome rock vibe to the familiar down-home marriage of soaring harmonies and galloping strings.
Over the years, Rose has shared stages with Shawn Colvin, Big Richard and The Parson Redheads — a testament to the chameleonic versatility of her sound. Her catalog has expanded to include both solo and band albums, several EPs, and a bounty of singles, all rooted in a sense of place that’s both eerily familiar and uniquely her own.”
