Lunar Eclipse by Johanna Rose
Until June 2021, Johanna Rose was likely best known in Milwaukee acoustic music circles as the upright bass-playing half of the duo Nickel & Rose. That act’s dissolution allowed Rose to become literally more vocal with her debut album as a soloist, Lunar Eclipse.
The recording finds her engaging an activity she was rarely afforded often enough in her previous twosome: singing. She and a few select friends from the city's roots music scene accompany eight of her own compositions, the intent of which she describes as her "cosmic emotional release." How that works out is as a set of songs with recurring themes of coming to terms with various relationships in arrangements that range from sorrowful to spooky and sprightly.
Rose’s supple singing contrasts effectively against the mature narratives she relates in modern folk/unamplified Americana stylings. Her melodic hooks often emerge in tandem with turns of phrase that can border on neologisms and repetitions of phrases. Even if intended as an intensely personal artistic statement, Eclipse's appeal is such to commend significantly broader acceptance. While her former musical partner, Carl Nichols, has changed his stage name to Buffalo Nichols and embarked on the career of a bluesman, Rose should get on fine pursuing her own tunefully idiosyncratic path.
