Nashville singer-songwriter D.L. Rossi bares his soul on his forthcoming album A Sweet Thing (due out on April 12). The album was written in the wake of a battle with cancer and a divorce.
“Something Back,” which Wide Open Country is premiering today, is a soul-searching ballad about what happens when everything you thought you knew is turned upside down.
Rossi says the song, which was the first track written for the album, helped him navigate his next stage of life.
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Roses & Cigarettes’ music is an eclectic blend of roots rock and Americana; a perfect recipe for the classic California sound. The band’s name was inspired by the Ray LaMontagne song of the same title, formed in Los Angeles in 2013. At that time Jenny Pagliaro was a vocalist in a local cover band who auditioned Angela Petrilli for a vacant guitar position. Pagliaro and Petrilli immediately bonded over a common desire to create and perform original material, and Roses & Cigarettes was born.
Roses & Cigarettes released their debut album in May of 2015 with a promotional tour slated for the Fall of that year. Unfortunately, those plans were interrupted when Pagliaro was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer, and immediately began a tumultuous round of treatment. A year later, and with another tour in the works, Pagliaro was again handed bad news–the cancer was back, and this time it was Stage IV. Despite this life-threatening setback and another round of new and grueling treatments for Pagliaro, the band hit the road and completed a successful tour.
Since then, Pagliaro has stunned both doctors and fans alike with major health improvements. While she does credit the new treatment for some of the healing, she feels that making music with Roses is the best medicine of all.
“I have to take care of myself and stay healthy,” she says. “That’s my priority, but my music and the band will always be an important part of that healing process.” Roses & Cigarettes has opened for Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters, Jim Lauderdale, Luther Dickinson, Marc Broussard, Radney Foster, Elizabeth Cook, The Record Company, Amanda Shires and others. The band continues to open to growing audiences. They released an acoustic EP in March 2018, and are set to release their second full album, Echoes and Silence, on February 22, 2019.
“Lovely…joyful yet sad, honest and plaintive.” – Americana Highways
“The embodiment of the SoCal country-rock sound.” – Wide Open Country
“Full on rocking country.” – AmericanaUK
“Unlocks boundless new doors in regards to how they’re able to convey their timeless vibe.” – For Folk’s Sake
“Melodic… sweet-sounding-but-rocking” – The Boot
“The duo has built quite a name for themselves in just a few years.” – Ditty TV
“Classic Californian sound…begs for repeated listens.” – Rearview Mirror
“Effortlessly blending country, folk, and the singer-songwriter tradition into a cohesive whole, the album knows how to have fun.” – Skope Magazine
“Passion Ain’t No Ordinary Word For These LA Rockers.” – The Rocking Magpie
Rossi credits ‘A Sweet Thing’ as being a cathartic emission, a coping strategy for confronting his past. Focusing on the aftermath of the divorce the songs reverberate with feeling. ‘Better’ is a cautionary tale, a man looking in the mirror at himself “I’m broken up, that isn’t an excuse to be an asshole after a few………get your shit together, be better”.
Revealing a glimpse into the self-awareness that he had been lacking for so long, Rossi delivers a thoughtful lyric with the degree of melancholy and sparse accompaniment that the song deserves.
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When the road calls, you’ve gotta go. Neo-traditionalist Nicholas Mudd hopped on his Harley and hit the open highway, plotting a 10-day trip from Lexington, Kentucky to sunny Los Angeles; a 2011 pilgrimage west that would prove to be a pivotal turn in his musical journey. His upcoming self-titled album spins like a top between themes of heartache, romance, the thrill of the sea, and booze-soaked youthful sensations.
Criss-crossing state lines and camping out to save money, Mudd hatched a journey down to Memphis, then through to Texarkana and Denton just outside of Dallas, and then inched his way across New Mexico and Arizona before finally arriving in California. “Waiting on Me” is a free-spirited, twinkling dance-hall cut, in which the singer-songwriter yearns for his former life back East, all the while knowing he’ll never return to it. “Well, it’s been five years now / And I can’t help but wonder / If she would even know me, if I came back home,” he sings.
Opener “Come with Me Tonight” jingles and jangles in true neon-strewn, boot-scootin’ fashion, while “High Lonesome” breathes in the expansive scenery and woodlands rolling like thunder down and away from him. Over the span of these eight songs, produced and mastered by Eric Rennaker, Mudd runs the gamut as a country songsmith, contrasting heart-torn whimpers with canyon-sized caterwauling.
Growing up in Lexington, Kentucky, surrounded by horse country and lush farmland, Mudd found himself immersed in country, southern rock, and traditional folk music. It was evident from a young age that he had inherited his grandfather’s musical interests. Leonard Mudd, now 92, always had a collection of guitars, mandolins, fiddles, dulcimers, and banjos sprinkled around his home, and still manages to make music from time to time.
Mudd’s exploration of music continued into high school when he formed The Blue Barrel Band, a cheeky nod to the fact they lacked an actual drum kit. “There was this giant blue plastic barrel in dad’s garage,” he recalls, “And we used it as a bass drum for our really bad folksy rock ‘n roll.”
Later, he took to Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University where he earned a degree in theatre, alongside another folksy music endeavor with some classmates. After graduating, he spent a few months back home before his cross-country trip to Los Angeles, where he took up an unpaid internship with a prominent casting director. The role soon led to a full assistant’s position, allowing him just enough of a financial foothold to get by in the City of Angels.
Music took an unexpected back seat for several years as he began his film career. Ultimately, two key events in 2015 spurred him to return to the musical fray: His first weekend trip to Bandit Town USA and his discovery of the Grand Ole Echo (a celebrated weekly summer country show in Echo Park). Surrounded and inspired by these communities of like-minded musicians, artists, and urban outlaws, he picked up the old ax and got back to it.
In late 2017, Mudd stepped into Bedrock LA for his first proper studio recording session. A daunting task ahead of him, the Americana troubadour suited himself up for a record that faithfully adheres to the neo-traditionalist style of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. But he’s got a fire in his belly for gale-force songwriting and catchy melodies. His voice is ripe with emotion, from the teary waterfall of “Lady of the Night” to the ethereal bliss with closer “Sailing Song,” an almost post-apocalyptic fever dream. “I’ve seen mountains on the sea / I’ve seen fire in the sky / I’ve outrun southern gales / I’ve cheated death,” he sings, in whimsical swoons, as if gliding away on tides ripping out to sea.
Mudd lands somewhere amidst contemporaries like Joshua Hedley, Margo Price and Colter Wall. He’s never tied to convention, even when he leans so unapologetically into sturdy classic country structures. His voice, as much as his penmanship, stimulates the senses with the most universal human emotions spanning pain, loneliness and abject fear. Furthermore, his album rekindles the kind of raw storytelling for which the genre has long been desperate, and 2019 might be the year the industry finally pays attention.
“Neo-traditionalist Nicholas Mudd steps in the twangy lore of yesteryear with his self-titled debut LP.” – Glide
“Heart hitting bluegrass-country.” – Comeherefloyd
“Immersed in country, southern rock, and traditional folk music.” – Americana UK
“Americana troubadour Nicholas Mudd collects up each shard for an uncertain journey on raging seas.” – B-Sides and Badlands
“A heartbreaker of an album.” – Americana Highways
“A bar-room weeper steeped in tradition, pedal steel and heartache.” – Wide Open Country
“Authentic and personal.” – Country Music Views
“An album tailored for the open road, adventurous in spirit just as its curator is.” – For Folk’s Sake
“Mudd’s voice is charged with emotion.” – Country in the UK
Jennah Bell “Can’t Be Too Careful”
Obsessed! When Jennah Bell pairs her rough voice with that smooth, slick guitar, she creates a new type of classic that we can’t get enough of. She sings about the kind of naked insecurity we all feel, but she does it in her own earthy, and real, style. She’s like a rocked out Carole King with a serious injection of grit.
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