Album Notes

“This guy has mega-chops: a beguiling cross-breeding of blues, rock and bluegrass, cemented by lyrics that recall Cohen and Zevon.” Real Detroit Weekly

Cohen, Zevon, Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, Van Morrison, these are the names that are thrown around in describing Stuart Rosh. Stuart just calls his blend of sounds American Mutt Music and leaves it that. Fats Waller. Tom Petty. It’s all great music to Stuart. He freely and happily borrows from anyone in the American Songbook of the 20th century.

The idea behind American Vernacular, Stuart Rosh’s third album, is to steal from sounds from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s and add contemporary lyrics. It's plain old American Mutt Music. Some r&b. Some jazz. Some rock. Put it in a blender and see what happens. This isn't rocket science. Stuart’s done rocket science. He knows the difference.

Stuart’s first two albums, Accept No Imitations and Hummingbirds in Flight, were country-steeped affairs that raised attention in the world of arty twang. But he’s out of the three chords and the truth phase, has dropped the faux Southern accent, and is singing his butt off, exploring the sounds he loved as a music obsessed kid poring over the record collections of dads of friends. That’s what the new album - American Vernacular - is all about.

Don Chance
Wichita Falls Times Record News
Rosh has captured the intimate immediacy of a bistro band-stand, and that ambiance is not always easy to recreate. This should find an eager audience with just about anyone seeking an alternative to modern radio fluff.

Don Wilkinson
Americana-UK
Stuart Rosh writes the kind of songs that are all too rare.

Brian Baker
Cincinnati CityBeat
Stuart Rosh likes juxtaposing contemporary lyrical concerns of love, culture, politics and parenthood against the dusty sound of traditional musical styles. It's like listening to 78s on a really great stereo.

Bio

Stuart Rosh was born and raised in Milwaukee, and lives in San Francisco. Oprah went to his high school. So did Kato Kaelin. He’s lived in the US, Italy, and Israel and grew up listening to and singing a lot of Yiddish, Russian and religious music. From the age of three until about twelve, he was obsessed with top 40 pop. Then he heard Muddy Waters, and that was that. In a previous life, he was a professor at a school well known for its basketball team.

The Geniuses and friends have played with the likes of the Rolling Stones, NRBQ, Guster, James Brown, Delbert McClinton, Marshall Tucker, Leon Russell, Nanci Griffith, and the list goes on.