Rose is a born storyteller. His interest in the human experience shines through his music as he catalogs stories and in-depth feelings throughout his new album. Angelo Rose delivers a heart-on-the-sleeve collection of melodious anthems, as he combines honest lyrics with soulful melodies. Glisten kicks in with the emotionally melodic opener “A Little Too Long” while the song “There’s A Hole” is a heartfelt, soul-searching blend, and “Love This Town” is an affectionate tribute to the grit and personality of New York City.
Elsewhere “Hammer Named Kindness” crafts an honest and uplifting spirit with its chiming guitar lines and “Temple of The Sea” and “Idyllwild” feature a passionate vocal delivery and storytelling at its best. As you listen to the songs on Glisten, you will take a poignant ride with Rose, who not only wrote, produced and sang on every track he also played every instrument throughout the ten-song set.
Rose began playing and writing music after a chance encounter with a wayward acoustic guitar in his teens. His first guitar, a gold Gibson rip-off, was used proficiently during his formative years at Rochester’ s T. Rizzo Music where he took lessons up until he finished high school. After his high school graduation, Rose was set to start his college career at St. Lawrence University, but shortly before he departed for Canton, he discovered that he could play the piano by ear.
He rarely played guitar during his four years in college, but consistently spent time in the basement boxes learning the intricacies of the keys. From SLU, Angelo followed in his father and maternal grandfather’s footsteps and enrolled in law school at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. Again, he was drawn to the piano though he would have to drive miles to the nearest facility to play. On his first day in Columbus, he met another student, Jason Cohen, who introduced him to the likes of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, The Samples, the Freddy Jones Band, and the BoDeans, all of whom became significant influences in his writing.
After graduating, he returned to Rochester and began practicing law, although music remained a constant in his private life. Then one day, Rose received some tragic news, his law school ally, Jason, was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Confronted with his friends battle and his own mortality, he took his leap of faith, with a desire to reconnect fully to his passion.
His drive to write, play, and record his music was ignited. The immediate goal was to record a full album before he was to meet up with his ailing friend, Jason, who at the time was living in Baltimore, MD. This was quite an undertaking because he had no prior experience recording with present-day DAW’s.
Undeterred, he took out a loan, built a small room in his basement, purchased Pro Tools software and a Mac and set out to create Shadows, his first full studio album. Ultimately, the album was completed and pressed on July 4th, 2007, weeks before his scheduled meeting in Columbus with his friend, Jason. On July 22nd, Jason passed away, never hearing the album.
Over the next two years, he wrote and recorded his second album, Behind this Nonchalance, which was dedicated to his departed friend. Rose’s music began garnering the attention of Rochester’s WBER and was added into the station’s regular rotation. The exposure on WBER created significant opportunities, including countless gigs and opening for national touring acts such as Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing. With the advent of increased web-based forums for sales and streaming, his music began to get global exposure.
The songs from that album continue to track consistently on download and streaming services across the globe. In October of 2016, as more devastation hit Haiti with Hurricane Matthew, Rose wrote and recorded “Haiti’s Rain” and released it as a pay-what-you-want single with all donations going to an organization he simultaneously founded – http://haitisrain.org/
In 2017 Rose released the album, Afterglow, and all proceeds from sales, streaming and downloads exclusively benefited the children of St. Damien’s Pediatric Hospital. The album is currently streaming in over thirty countries. Continuing his journey as a cause artist Rose will be donating all proceeds from sales, streaming and downloads of Glisten to Haiti and St. Damien Pediatric Hospital.
Overall, Rose’s music has helped to raise over $150k for Haiti’s St. Damien Pediatric Hospital and Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos.
“I had absolutely no involvement with Haiti, but shortly after the earthquake, I had a dream and in it was the melody for “Under the Mango Tree.” I woke up at 3 am, wrote the whole song, and had no idea what to do with it or why the tragedy there had such an impact on me. I knew that a mother of one of my closest friends from high school had done some work with an organization there. I reached out to her, and she filled me in on St. Damien Pediatric Hospital and Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos. She helped to open my eyes to what was going on there, I recorded the song and enlisted family-friend Grammy award winner Neal Cappellino to produce.
We released the song with all proceeds benefitting the children’s hospital in Port Au Prince. I remained involved trying to help through some other projects, and in November 2016, Hurricane Matthew stuck the tiny island. I wrote and recorded” Haiti’s Rain” and released it as a pay-what-you-want single. People were kind, generous, and we were able to raise a decent amount of money. Shortly after this, a spot opened on a trip to Haiti, and I was able to tag along for a “heart mission” at St. Damien in January 2017. There, seeing and feeling all that I had experienced only in my mind’s eye, was overwhelming. It impacted me indelibly, left scars on my soul I will never lose.”
Rose shares a passionate, distinct sound, pouring himself into his songs with the intensity of a man with something to say. Hear him tell his story on Rochester Storytellers Project:
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