{"id":149049,"date":"2012-06-04T15:44:51","date_gmt":"2012-06-04T15:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socancom100stg.wpenginepowered.com\/rose-cousins-unflinching-lyrics-create-a-spark-with-listeners\/"},"modified":"2012-06-04T15:44:51","modified_gmt":"2012-06-04T15:44:51","slug":"rose-cousins-unflinching-lyrics-create-a-spark-with-listeners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/rose-cousins-unflinching-lyrics-create-a-spark-with-listeners\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose Cousins’ unflinching lyrics create a spark with listeners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les traductions pour les articles avant l\u2019automne 2013 ne sont pas disponibles pour le moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Acceptance into one\u2019s local music community is an important component in the career of any singer-songwriter. To be equally embraced by two communities is a major bonus, one for which Rose Cousins is deeply grateful.<\/p>\n

The P.E.I-raised, Halifax-based Cousins is a key member of the folk\/roots scenes in both Halifax and Boston. Her American connection is vividly showcased on her compelling new album, We Have Made A Spark. Her third full-length CD, it was recorded at Boston studio Q Division, produced by Bostonian Zachariah Hickman, and features a large cast of area musicians and backing singers.
\nCousins has set down roots within the Boston scene over the past decade. \u201cThe people there have really lit a spark with what they’ve taught me,\u201d she says. She traces her interest in that scene back to the late \u201890s. \u201cI was learning how to play guitar and I was really attracted to the singer-songwriter style. I was listening to people like Deb Talan, Kris Delmhorst and John Gorka, and it seemed like everyone was filtering through the Boston area. I was hungry to connect with the places and people I was listening to, and every summer I\u2019d look for a folk festival there to go to as my vacation.\u201d

\u201cI don\u2018t think the details are important. I think the emotion in the song is important.\u201d<\/div>\n

A turning point came in 2002, when Cousins played an open mic night at legendary Boston folk haunt Club Passim. That led to an invitation to perform at the Cutting Edge of Campfire benefit festival, termed by Cousins \u201cthe beginning of my becoming part of that community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fittingly, her Boston CD launch for\u00a0We Have Made A Spark<\/em>\u00a0came via a performance at Club Passim in February. \u201cAlmost everybody who plays on the album was there, and it was just amazing,\u201d recalls Cousins. The fact that she’s recently been playing U.S. dates opening for Gorka further indicates the peer respect she’s earned there.<\/p>\n

The eloquence of her songwriting and purity of her voice have long made Cousins a favourite on the Maritime circuit. She’s won PEI Music and Music Nova Scotia Awards, a 2008 East Coast Music Award (ECMA) for Female Solo Recording of the Year (for her album If You Were For Me), and, in 2011, ECMAs for Female Solo Recording (The Send Off) and SOCAN-sponsored Songwriter of the Year.<\/p>\n

Cousins has been delighted to witness the success of East Coast comrades like Jill Barber, Catherine MacLellan, David Myles, Meaghan Smith, and Old Man Luedecke. \u201cAll the Atlantic regions have such an amazing variety and high level of talent. I feel I\u2019m part of this very cool graduating class,\u201d she says. \u201cWe all started at similar times, plugging away and meeting each other. Now everyone is doing it full-time and finding success with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A signature of Cousins\u2019 style is the unflinching honesty of her lyrics. Emotion is the real spark behind her writing, she explains. \u201cI\u2019m spurred by an emotion I\u2019m feeling, \u201d she says. \u201cIt may be a notion I haven\u2019t quite figured out and the writing of the song may help me do that, or it may be a pure emotion that’s harder to talk about than write about. In order to write I need to feel the thing I\u2019m writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

We Have Made A Spark<\/em>\u00a0has been termed a \u201cbreakup\u201d album, but Cousins disputes that characterization. \u201cIt’s not a breakup record, in the standard sense of the fact that I may have been with one person and broken up with them, \u201d she says. \u201cThat’s just not the case. I\u2019m into my \u201830s now and there are chunks of time when you\u2019re wrestling with certain things. There comes a point where you assess patterns you have, and people in your life, and things you are telling yourself, and you have to check in on those things. See what serves you and what no longer serves you. I think the record has a lot of that. It’s not about one particular person. It’s about the part of me that has to let go. I don\u2018t think the details are important. I think the emotion in the song is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

She acknowledges that she’s drawn to darker themes in her writing. \u201cI guess I look at sadness and introspection as a little more interesting, \u201d she says. \u201cThere are more unexplored caves, nooks and crannies, with things hiding in them. It feels more complicated when you feel sad than when you feel joyful, and that attracts me to it. That doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m a miserable person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carving out time for writing is an increasing challenge, given her hectic touring schedule. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of uninterrupted down time when I\u2019m on the road,\u201d she says, and mentions an annual retreat she’ll be\u00a0taking in June. \u201cI\u2019ve done it for the past two years, and I\u2019m so excited for that. No phones, no computers, just a lake and woods. That is the best time to figure out what I\u2019m actually thinking and feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warmly embraced from Halifax to Boston<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-non-categorise"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}