Alexa Rose's Debut Album Coming On Big Legal Mess This October

Alexa Rose is announcing her debut full-length album on Big Legal Mess today with "Medicine For Living", the song which won her the acclaimed songwriting competition at Merlefest in 2019. The track, which informs the title of her debut album, is a slice of contemporary roots music in the vein of Gillian Welch, imbued with the Appalachian storytelling sensibilities of her ancestral home in the Alleghany Highlands in western Virginia Rose brings her poignant, soulful, timeless voice to this deep well of traditional songwriting. Speaking to this first single Rose says "this song is about a love that is failing and that moment when something is about to come to an end. That moment should still be appreciated and enjoyed because it's still part of love. I was trying to reason with myself about something that I had no control over. Medicine for Living is about realizing that all we can do is be loving and reach for love and that in itself can be healing." Alexa Rose will be on tour this fall including an official showcase at AmericanaFest in Nashville, TN Sept 10th - 15th.

Alexa Rose Tour

8/2 - The Ramkat - Winston-Salem, NC

8/31 - Reeves Theatre - Elkin, NC

9/10 - 9/15 - AmericanaFest - Nashville, TN

10/3 - The Foundry - Athens, GA

10/5 - Isis Music Hall - Asheville, NC

10/6 - Carolina Theatre - Greensboro, NC

11/5 - Rockwood Music Hall - New York, NY

11/7 - Atwood's Tavern - Cambridge, MA

11/8 - Cafe Nine - New Haven, CT

11/9 - The Locks At Sona - Philadelphia, PA

12/5 - Duke Performances - Durham, NC

In an era where the term Americana has lost much of its meaning Medicine for Living is just that: a fully realized, multi-layered merger of old country music, traditional folk songs, colored by rock and roll and mountain soul. "There's a lot of people I'm influenced by that show up in the songs in different ways," says Rose. "Whether it's John Prine or Townes Van Zandt, or Alynda Segarra from Hurray for the Riff Raff."

Through her association with Tim Duffy - head of the non-profit Southern music preservation organization, Music Maker Relief Foundation -- Rose was brought to the attention of Big Legal Mess label head Bruce Watson. He signed Rose and brought her to his Memphis home base to cut her full-length debut. "This album is Appalachia-meets-Memphis," says Rose. "The stories and inspiration emanate from the mountains, but the tracks have all these different musical elements coming in."

Recorded at Watson's Delta-Sonic Studio, Rose is backed by a crew of Bluff City all-stars including a core band led by legendary guitarist Will Sexton, drummer George Sluppick and bassist Mark Edgar Stuart, with guests including organists Rick Steff (Lucero) and Al Gamble (St. Paul & The Broken Bones), among others.

"The funny thing was that I hadn't met any of them at all before we started recording," says Rose. "You know, playing your songs for someone in a studio is like getting naked in front of them; it's a very personal thing to do. But when you play music together, you skip all the normal steps of a relationship immediately go to this really close place with people."

Album co-producers Watson and Clay Jones (Modest Mouse, Buddy Guy) decided to keep the sessions feeling as fresh and immediate as possible. "None of the musicians had heard any of the songs or even heard me before we started. Bruce really wanted to capture their gut response to the music," says Rose. "What came out of that was really cool - we sorta let the songs be like taffy - we let them be moved and shaped and pulled in new and different ways."

Medicine For Living Tracklist

1. Borrow Your Heart

2. Like a Child

3. The Last Wildflower

4. The Leaving Kind

5. Medicine For Living

6. Red Balloon

7. Fine Tooth Comb

8. The Way Love Is

9. Tried and True

10. Untitled No. 47

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