“The whole CD doesn’t miss the target…ever. – Americana Highways
WARWICK, New York (November 3, 2022) – Tina Ross’s debut folk release, “While I’m Here,” has been a long time in the making. In her second act, she overcomes injuries indicative of her craft to pursue her very patient muse with resilience and perseverance. “While I’m Here” is due out February 17, 2023.
Ross had to overcome challenges before she could fully explore a songwriter career. After being accidentally hit in the throat, she could not talk for more than five minutes without her voice frying. Singing was out of the question. She worked through this successfully with doctors, physical therapists, and vocal coaches. And after Ross injured her hands as a chiropractor, she searched for a way to adjust her guitar playing to the limitations of this disability. Open tunings became an essential part of Ross’s music, opening sonic landscapes that she would not have imagined without that adaptation. This discovery resulted in distinctive, nuanced textures in her guitar playing.
Ross combines her soaring, intimate voice and sonic-scaped guitar playing with songs that resemble the white space of a timeless painting. Here she probes the indispensable space between yin and yang, light and dark. That space creates shapes, allowing everything to exist, and nothing happens without it. Her vocal delivery brims with the clarity and conviction of a stage actor, while her finely crafted acoustic guitar work has an understated and uncluttered quality that moves through her songs like wind brushing over a meadow. There is no hurry in her music, but make no mistake, it’s not laid back. There is urgency, nonetheless. A quiet, elegant fierceness runs through these songs. After all, when the time has come for the seed to depart the flower or the tide to come in from the sea, we humans are gently, but firmly asked to step back and let the wonder unfold. Ross’s songs speak to wonder, humility, doubt, and defiance. They are imbued with vulnerability and mastery alike, a testament to giving it one’s very best shot while we are here.
“While I’m Here” Track Listing
- While I’m Here (4:15)
- A Life I Am Forging (4:07)
- Artemisia (3:25)
- It Doesn’t Bother Me Now (4:08)
- Make It To The Other Side (3:41)
- Dawn Redwood Winter (4:22)
- Night Thoughts Speak (3:34)
- Hold The Door (4:03)
- Summers Like These (4:08)
- Catching Up (3:19)
About Tina Ross
Ross is full-speed (double time) songwriting with The Jack Hardy Songwriting Exchange and Steven Seskin, recording with Mark Dann (having recently finished her debut album), performing, and embracing her growing music community. Ross hosts the Open Stage and hosts and produces the monthly online series “Inside the Song” for The Folk Project of New Jersey. Ross interviews seasoned songwriters and explores their songwriting process. Guests have included Dar Williams, Ellis Paul, and Christine Lavin. Ross brings her innate curiosity to understand the vision behind an artist’s work. She’s been recognized by the UK Songwriting Contest and The International Blues and Roots Radio Contest as a finalist and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest as an Honorable Mention. Ross’s upcoming album is her official imprint into the digital folk community after a year of performing in notable folk conferences and festivals, including Folk Alliance, opening for Tom Chapin, and appearing as a special guest of Christine Lavin.
Tour Dates
Sunday, Nov 6, 2022 – The Greenwich Village Folk Festival – Online – FB, YouTube
Wed, Nov 9, 2022 7-8:00 pm EST‘Inside The Song’ – The Folk Project of NJ – on Zoom
Nov 10-13, 202 – NERFA 2022 7 LIVE SHOWCASES – Asbury Park, NJ
Thursday, December 8, 7-8:00 pm EST – ‘Inside The Song’ – The Folk Project of NJ – on Zoom
Friday, December 9, 7:30 – 10:00 pm EST – Host of The Folk Project of NJ’s Open Stage – Morristown, NJ
Saturday, Dec. 10 7:30 pm EST – Christine Lavin with Tina Ross, The Cooperage Project – River Vibes Concert, Honesdale, PA
Saturday, Jan 7, 2023 8-10 pm ESTThe Songwriters Round – Songcraft and Chat, Tina Ross, KJ Denhert, Sam Robbins and Halley Neal, The Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club, Fair Lawn, NJ
Thursday, Jan 19, 2023 – Songwriter CircleOne Broadway Collaborative, Lawrence, MA 01840
