Quick Q and A with Rose Polenzani
 by Kathy S-B  ·  16 October 2009

Rose Polenzani is a much beloved musician in the greater Boston area and can be spotted at any number of venues, playing solo or with an array of equally fantastic musicians. Everyone seems to gravitate to her and her exquisite songs, creative arrangements and all-around fun and whimsical spirit. Tune into Rose’s website to discover her infectious melodies and wonderful tunes. You’ll fall in love with this video. Regulars to Club Passim will recognize some of the musical regulars in this video.

You are one of the most creative people I can think of in the Boston music scene. It seems like you’re always up to something very cool — whether it’s a choreographed dance video or taking a song from a musical like “Seven Brides for Seven Sister” and recreating it with hand puppets….and it always works! You’re a brave woman. How do you manage to convince everyone to go along with you?

I do get very excited about collaborating, and I’m blessed to be in the midst of other people who want (like me) to make something bigger than themselves—who value and know how to maximize collaborative opportunities. All we had to do is have fun together one time, and every time someone wants to work together again, we’re all on board.

A lot of my ideas spring from the pool of talent I’m swimming in — Like for the “cornfield” video, I had creative party-people over at the house, and it didn’t take much to get them to improvise for the camera, or contribute some small choreography, or learn some. I mean, I had to cut a lot of fun ideas — we did a human pyramid! That’s not in the video. When I’m working on a project, I go into a productive kind of trance, where I just truly feel that it’s going to surprise me and come together. I have a lot of faith and patience with my projects.

And as far as hand-puppets go: (I mean, besides the fact that hand puppets are a universal crowd pleaser): sometimes I think I get away with things because I’m not (for instance) a hand puppeteer: I start with a nice handicap — nobody expects my videos to be great or professional or to feature class-A special effects, so what little I can accomplish goes a long way.

What inspired you to take up the baritone uke?

Jennifer Kimball — she plays one, and then I borrowed one from my friend David Champagne, and wrote a song on it, and then I had to have one so I could play my song. But I have more songs on the soprano uke — which I can’t remember why I started playing — sometimes when I’m in a rut with songwriting I’ll buy an instrument to shake things up.

If you had to choose your most thrilling moment in the music business, what would it be?

It has to be one of the collaborative shows — I’ve had some shows recently where I kept re-living the show for days afterwards — It’s a huge thrill to experience one of your own songs growing into a great big gorgeous thing around you.

Tell us about your new CD, When the River Meets the Sea, with Session Americana. Is it true that it was recorded quite a while ago and you decided to finally release it?

It was recorded in 2006 — I didn’t release it because I was busy finishing a college degree, and I was holding out for my music-business prince charming to come and sweep it off its feet into the big leagues. But in the end, I just pressed it and am quietly sending it out to people who might like it and use it.

What you set any kind of goals for yourself as far as your music is concerned? Are you burning to do something new and different or ready to record or tour in some brand new territory?

I’d love to tour in Ireland —

For recording, I’m excited to do another record inspired by all the vocal harmony and arranging we’ve been doing. I want to record live-in-studio again, but some of the new songs don’t lend themselves to it — we’ll see what happens. I’m working on releasing the music of SUB ROSA — my monthly collaborative residency — it might be straight to the web with that stuff, we’ll see. We might go into the studio — who knows?