Eileen Rose

Eileen Rose (born January 31, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter who is known for her eclectic Americana music. She has released 12 solo studio albums and toured Europe and the US extensively with her band The Holy Wreck. She is also a member of the band The Silver Threads.

Born Eileen Rose Giadone, in the north Boston suburb of Saugus, Massachusetts, Rose grew up in a close-knit Italian-Irish American family with five older sisters and three brothers. She started writing songs as a teenager and taught herself to read music and play the guitar. Waitressing to put herself through college, Rose began to study criminal law, but gave it up to begin performing on the local Boston music scene. She released a self-funded folk album and fronted the indie-rock bands Daisy Chain, Medici Slot Machine and then Fledgling.

In 1991, Rose moved to the UK, living in north London. With Fledgling, she played on the London club circuit and toured the US east coast. Fledgling signed to Nine Inch Nail's TVT label and released one self-titled album in 1995, before disbanding. The Fledgling song "August" featured on the soundtrack of the Sandra Bullock / Denis Leary movie Two If by Sea. When Fledgling split, Rose moved into an old cottage on a dairy farm in Essex and began to write and demo what she has described as "very personal songs" that would form the core of her first two albums. After a year or two, she decided to try performing them solo and started booking gigs. At a gig at the Weavers Arms, Rose was approached by Larry Love of Alabama 3, leader of the headlining Larry Love Show Band. He liked her set and offered his band to back her for a few shows. Geoff Travis from the seminal UK record label Rough Trade Records saw them play and offered Rose a solo deal. Rose released two albums and an EP on Rough Trade, both of which were well received by critics.

Rose's debut album, Shine Like It Does, was originally released in the UK in October 2000. The record was recorded in Monnow Valley studio, near Monmouth in Wales, and featured three members of Alabama 3 – guitarist Mark Sams, keyboard player Orlando Harrison and Simon "Sir Eddie Real" Edwards on drums. David Bull, the lead guitarist in Fledgling, and Barry Payne, the former bass player for Wreckless Eric, also played on it. The album was engineered and co-produced by Jerry Boys (The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Buena Vista Social Club). Shine Like It Does was re-released in 2001, with a different cover and shrink-wrapped with a new EP. The Party Dress EP was recorded with Iain Harvie (of Del Amitri) and Kris Dollimore (Del Amitri, The Godfathers) in their studio in Rochester, Kent. US label Compass, run by Grammy-winning banjo-player Alison Brown, added three of the tracks from that EP to Shine Like It Does when they released it in the US that April.

The song "Shining", which gives Shine Like It Does its title, featured in the Disney movie The Rookie and is also on the soundtrack album along with Ryan Adams and Steve Earle. "Lie To Me" was featured in an episode of the TV series Felicity.

In October 2000 Rose opened for Ryan Adams on his UK tour. She started 2001 with a three-week residency at London's Borderline club, then toured the UK with Eddi Reader. She opened for Ron Sexsmith on his US tour in July 2001, and his tour of Ireland that November.

Rose's second album, Long Shot Novena, was released in February 2002 through Rough Trade in the UK and Compass records in the US. It was recorded at Troy Town Studios in Rochester, Kent, with Harvie and Dollimore using guest musicians including Bull, Payne, Harrison and Del Amitri drummer Mark Price. The Sex Pistols' Glen Matlock and The Ruts' Seggs both feature on bass. Long Shot Novena saw Rose experimenting with sequencing and drum programming for the first time. The UK's Daily Mirror newspaper described the album's sound as "spit 'n' sawdust country filtered through the Velvet Underground". In support of the album, Rose toured the US with Frank Black and Ed Harcourt.

In 2003, Rose returned to live in the US. She taught herself to play the piano and went to Martha's Vineyard to write new songs over the winter. The resultant album, Come the Storm was recorded at the famous Long View Farm studios in Massachusetts with local musicians including guitarist Seth Goodman. It was released in the UK on Banana Records in October 2005. In the US, Judy Collins personally offered to put it out on her own label, Wildflower Records, and it received a 2007 release.