Music
Press
http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/3570/department/music/band_of_the_week_the_rosewood_thieves - Paste
4 stars out of 5
From the Decker House EP
Rosewood Thieves
V2 Music
Imagine packing up the backpack, climbing on the motorcycle and taking a month-long road trip across the Real America, the small towns, back streets and regular-joe type of joints that litter every state. Now imagine your touring companions are John Lennon and Johnny Cash. You?d be in for one hell of a vacation, wouldn?t you?
The Rosewood Thieves? debut EP, From the Decker House is a lot like that trek across the byways and back roads with the Man in Black and the Working Class Hero. Basking in a remarkably classic, yet fresh, approach to roots rock that channels the Best Beatle and a love for Americana without venturing too deeply into rock?n?roll resurrection fantasies. Naturally, From the Decker House doesn?t match the magic of Lennon or Cash, but it sure basks in the glory of those songwriters? efforts.
The band, which hails from Deposit, N.Y., settles down into a groove that matches Lennon?s more straightforward solo moments with the weight of decades of American roots-rock. It?s such a workable hybrid, it?s surprising nobody else wandered across Rosewood Thieves? formula before this. The band?s more than German-engineered rock promises, however, as the Thieves manage enough raw talent to make this EP more than an exercise in mix?n?match influences. ?Back Home in Harlem? slices up bits of everything from Three Dog Night to The Kingsmen, buffering it all with singer/guitarist Erick Jordan?s cracking delivery adding an indelible similarity to Lennon?s work. ?Doctor? and ?Los Angeles? stake a claim in a hitherto undiscovered territory between late-era Beatles and modern alt-country. ?Lonesome Road? travels the roots-rock highways with an honesty so rare in this era when Americana?s a gimmick more than a reliance upon tradition.
If this EP is the first glimpse of a still-developing band, mark down The Rosewood Thieves? name now. If the Thieves continue to perfect and polish this sound, it?ll be on the tip of every rock-obsessing hipster?s tongue, scrawled across every wanky blog on the ?net and spinning during setup and breakdown at every third club show you attend.
- Matt Schild
- www.aversion.com
Discography
ep From The Decker House-V2 out
ep-Lonsome out
full length cd Rise & Shine due out April 1st 2008
Photos
Bio
The Rosewood Thieves
From the Decker House
The small valley town of Deposit, NY lies along the West Branch of the Delaware River, and is nestled between the bustling metropolitan areas of Albany and Syracuse. Deposit is also host to the Decker House, an All-American rickety white farmhouse that is more ghostly than quaint. Local socialite Bonnie Decker lived and died in that house. Within a month of her passing, the Rosewood Thieves left New York City, looking to reclaim a peace of mind while finding their rock & roll heart at the Decker house. In the process, they found themselves surrounded by the mystery of her memory and haunted by Deposit’s peculiar existence, thus the story of the From the Decker House EP was written.
Spearheaded by singer/songwriter Erick Jordan, who hails from The Pocono'sFrom the Decker House is a collection of songs that harks back to the classicality of acts such as the Band and Bob Dylan. These six picturesque songs are entwined with the stripped-down fundamentals of rock & roll and the sensuality of R&B. Country music’s bleeding heart is the final straw that completes the Rosewood Thieves honest-to-goodness presentation. Jordan’s raspy vocal delivery is earnest and charming like a young John Lennon, but convincingly more impressive than his twenty years of age.
There was no television, no internet, and no phone at the Decker house. Their five-acre landscape had a cattle farm on one side and trailer homes on another. When they weren’t retiling the kitchen or clearing out old deer carcasses from the barn, the Rosewood Thieves would gather in the living room each evening for six weeks to write and rehearse. Jordan says leaving behind the hustle and flow of New York City was exactly what they needed. He didn’t seem to mind that the heat wasn’t on most of the time and that the pipes were freezing nearly every other day. “The living room space was the best spot—it had wood floors and a fireplace,” Jordan says. “We started playing music around seven o’clock and things would go until three in the morning.”
From the Decker House captures cityscapes like New York City and Los Angeles. Jordan reflects upon the world around him. It’s as simple as that. Other tracks tap into a broken heart, but not in that familiar kind of way. “I like to write about people and places and develop story-oriented songs. They’re not all true obviously, but they’re all based on pretty prominent things.”
Jaunty number “Back Home to Harlem” is a nice example. Featuring Vetiver’s Andy Cabic on bass, fiery acoustic guitars tango with a sinister backdrop of percussion and organ. Jordan’s aching vocals scowl “Oh my love, you said you wanted somebody else. Well you got him.” “Los Angeles” is a bit more nostalgic with its lush piano arrangements and Jordan’s daydreamy performance. “Doctor” is a freewheeling footstomper with a many country flavors. Nitty gritty “Lonesome Road” is an
album standout. Piano legend Bob Dorough, who is best known for composing the Schoolhouse Rock childhood favorite “Conjunction Junction” (as well as critically acclaimed jazz recordings from the mid-‘50s to the present) appears here, rounding out the Rosewood Thieves’ earnest introduction.
“He’s a legend,” Jordan says. “His whole lingo is from another planet. When I originally met him a few years back, I went to shake his hand. I didn’t know that you’re not supposed to shake a piano player’s hand. That’s their thing; you can’t fuck up their hands. When he came in to record, he was playing so intensely that he shook the glass behind the control room. He did about three takes and that was it. He just nailed it.”
On From the Decker House, Jordan is talented enough to carry out a solid record without being too cheerful about his heroes—Dylan, John Lennon, Solomon Burke—and succeeds in carving out something new for his generation of music fans. He may be young, but he has the chops and guts to make it because he gets what music is about.
Links
