On Under a Cathedral Sky, award-winning singer/songwriter Ynana Rose distills well-earned wisdom into captivating songs of the heart, and audiences in New Mexico and California will have a chance to hear her live over the next few weeks.
Ynana Rose
Under a Cathedral Sky (Ynana Rose Music)
A review
Under a Cathedral Sky is my first encounter with singer/songwriter Ynana (pronounced Yuh-na-na) Rose, and it will not be my last. Albuquerque singer/songwriter Kristina Jacobsen, who’s cowritten with Rose, encouraged her to reach out to me in advance of her two-week New Mexico tour. I owe you a nice bottle of wine, Kristina.
The album’s 11 original tracks, delivered in Rose’s warm, unguarded alto, touch on a host of personal experiences and feelings that wounded, strengthened, and enlarged her heart. She has a special feel for the varieties of love (budding, ending, lost, under construction) and for the need to live life authentically, without disguise, and she has the courage to honestly—and affectingly—relay the range of her own emotions and responsibilities in the tangled dynamics of life and love.
Her well-constructed tunes carry poetic images, incisive insights, and a dollop of self-deprecating humor to sweeten the message. The music touches on a variety of americana forms, from blues to country to Latin to folk, and it’s brought home by a slew of top-drawer and highly sympathetic musicians: Dominic Castillo on lead guitar, Tammy Rogers (The SteelDrivers) on fiddle, Scotty Sanders on dobro, Wanda Vick on mandolin, David Landau on cello, Kristian Ducharme on piano/keyboard, Dylan Johnson on bass, Paul Griffith on drums, and Damon Castillo on a multitude of instruments.
Highlights abound. Several of the tunes on the album are related to the breakup of Rose’s 20-year marriage and her reintegration into the world as an unattached woman. The folk country ballad “It’s about Time,” cowritten with Chris Pierce and Ken McMeans, explores the first concrete realization of no longer being two:
I’m parked in the driveway
Outside of my own home
I hold the keys tight in my hand
I’m not ready to be alone
The silence grows and gathers
Evening’s coming down
The tears start in the hallway
As I take a look around
In the quiet of the night
I find the strength to be me
“Right Now” chronicles a comfortable ad hoc affair that needs no road map. “Persephone” cries out for new stories to address the ancient archetypes of masculine and feminine. “Prelude to a Kiss” captures the emotional intoxication of desire. “The Downpour” explores the conflict between the need for personal change and fear of the unfamiliar.
Under a Cathedral Sky offers a master class in songwriting. Rose captures the lacerating and uplifting complexity of human emotion and experience, compressed and communicated in three or four deeply felt minutes per song. As an added bonus, the songs ride Rose’s expressive vocals, over deft arrangements and a smoking band.
You can hear and purchase the album on Rose’s website (ynanarose.com) and the usual streaming services. Those of you in New Mexico and California can catch her live at the following events (and she’ll appear on Brandon Kennedy’s Free Form show on KUNM, 89.9 FM or kunm.org, on June 27, sometime between 1:30 and 4:00 p.m. MT):
Check out the limited-edition T-shirts and
fridge magnets at the Musically Speaking store.
Your support is much appreciated.