Oh, Rose While My Father Sleeps

While My Father Sleeps by the Olympia, Washington, based band Oh, Rose, tells the complex story of family, adversity, love, and friendship. In ten songs, the record bears the soul and shares the truths of the band's frontperson and creative driver, Olivia Rose, while also serving as an homage to Rose's mother, who passed away in January of 2017. It is Rose's life's story, told under the banner of a story her mother was never able to finish. 'While My Father Sleeps' is the title of the book my mother wrote throughout her life, Rose says. It involved her relationship with my grandfather, the way she could communicate with him through the poetry of Carl Sandburg and the writings of Truman Capote. Her storytelling always inspired me to tell my own through music. The album title and artwork serves as a bookend, the songs written between two moments. The front cover shows my mother reading to my brother and me outside the North Asheville library in the summer of 1995, the back is her headstone. Though I didn't write these songs in a state of grief, I came to know this album while I was grieving. When my mother died, I learned a new language, the language of death. At the same time, I was continuing to build strength and love within my community. My story isn't uncommon. I hope my music finds a home with those who speak these same languages. Throughout the record, it is Rose's powerful, expressive voice that carves our path, navigating a sure and delicate way from song to song. The emotion shifts and sways, a quality she attributes to the undulating nature of her past, ultimately providing a sturdy ground upon which to build. While My Father Sleeps is an album about family and friendship, beauty and love, turbulence and trauma amidst the sense of finally coming home. While My Father Sleeps is set for release August 23rd via Park The Van Records