After paying dues with the group Three Story Brownstone and Buffalo Trout, he has stepped forward with his own crew, Al Rose and the Transcendos. "I hear them as an organic rhythm unit with a lot of emotional power," Rose says. "We've been together for years, and they share a spirit with me." As a bandleader, Rose is a chameleon who sheds his skin to match the mood of his talking head. Whether riffin' as rockers, folkies or jazzmen, The Transcendos unleash a vast array of songs that Rose has stockpiled like ammunition in a musical bomb shelter. "Like everybody," Rose says, "I'm just a transmitter for some kind of emotion. Whatever the medium, I'll always end up describing how certain things affect you."
His dizzying use of the English vernacular has caused some to call Rose a jazz-folk artist. While Bohemian in nature, the man is more beat than jazz. He owes a larger debt to Allen Ginsberg than to Miles Davis. Bottom line: Rose is a beat poet trapped in a singer-songwriter's body. "I take whatever words come out, it's editing things down that's the tough part," he says. "It might be very specific, it may be oblique, but usually other people will have to get their own meaning out of it."
The new disc, Information Overload (on Whitehouse Records), is just that. His cup runneth over, brimming with songs that are decidedly surreal and often non-linear. The Transcendos provide a sound foundation from which he verbally freefalls, as is his want. Headache heartache emotional bedsores - It's denial of the fittest with a tailor made view, Rose moans during his stream-of-consciousness-a-long, "All Make Out." The diatribe in "Slice of Life" perfectly evokes an emotional, crosstown traffic jam. You will be both amused and horrified when you determine he's singing about an imminent, deadly plane crash in the buoyantly sardonic "We're Going Down."
Rose is a trance-former when he plays solo. "Because I'm on the road," he explains, "I'm performing by myself much more." His guitar playing is distinctive after countless gigs throughout the Midwest. The lucid interplay between his voice and guitar display Rose at his most meditative. Musing over a forgotten detail of someone else's past life, his thoughts brew until they're ready for public consumption. "I have just three stages of being an artist that are intertwined," says Rose. "My songwriting, the recording process and this performing thing." From the sound of it, Al Rose's creative cycle has begun to pay off.
Al Rose performs Tue., Sept. 19 at The Daily Grind, Wed. Sept. 20 at The Full Moon Cafe in Lawrence and Thu. Sept. 21 at The Classic Bean in Topeka.