3/9/19 @ Ballard Homestead:
Rose Cousins (Nova Scotia), Tomo Nakayama (Seattle)

Rose Cousins: rosecousins.com/

“It’s always best to turn to Rose Cousins if you have some feelings that really need to be felt; somehow, the Nova Scotia singer-songwriter’s life-saving writing and beautiful voice help with that every time.” —NPR “Heavy Rotation”

https://www.npr.org/2017/03/15/520130155/songs-we-love-rose-cousins-white-flag

"La mer est plus belle que les cathédrales," the poet Paul Verlaine once wrote, expressing the impossible challenge so many artists have felt in aspiring to create something as imperfectly perfect as nature. The sea is more beautiful than cathedrals. "Art is not nature," the theorist Theodor Adorno wrote, contemplating Verlaine's poem; "but art does want to keep nature's promise." That promise — the freedom contained in pure, unmotivated existence — isn't humanly achievable. But sometimes it can be deeply evoked. Verlaine did so in his poem, as did Claude Debussy in the musical setting he later created for it. The vocalist and songwriter Rose Cousins does something similar on her remarkable new album, Natural Conclusion, as this video for the song "White Flag" beautifully captures.

Rose Cousins, Natural Conclusion.

Courtesy of the artist

The Juno-Award winning, Nova Scotia-based Cousins has a disarmingly fluid vocal tone and an ability to convey the most internalized emotions — disappointment, grief, resolve, forbearance — without an ounce of fuss. Throughout this fourth studio album, produced by Joe Henry with his usual sensitivity, she confronts loss and loneliness in vignettes that are both unstintingly honest and restorative. The lyrics of "White Flag" are brutal — "take my hands, they are grieving," she sings, "nothing to hold onto or believe in" — but the sinuous adagio that encloses them is pure grace. Piano, strings, a muted bassline and Cousins' unforced vocal — it almost seems like she's entered some space beyond breathing — blend within a mood of exquisite sorrow.

Like Debussy's watery compositions, this one brings to mind the sea. (It also recalls Dido's inimitably plainspoken 2003 hit by the same name; Cousins brings something more deeply spiritual to a similar storyline.) Video director Shehab Illyas picks up on the song's scent of salt air by imagining Cousins almost as part of the vast, rocky coastline of Duncan's Cove in Nova Scotia. Filming in exquisite black and white, Illyas juxtaposes close-ups of the singer reclining, like a Modernist artist's model having her dreams read, and of the oceans swirling and eddying against the rocks. Cousins has surrendered to her longing, and it has freed her. The listener may feel similarly unmoored, in the best way. "This immensity has no intentions," Paul Verlaine wrote of the sea. The same, Rose Cousins sings, is true of heartbreak, in the moment the lover stops trying and gives in to the nature of the experience."

@ Ballard Homestead
7:30p show, 7p doors

All ages, seated

MORE EVENT INFO:

- Seating is not reserved.
- We have a mix of padded chairs and benches available.
- We are an all ages venue.
- Please refrain from talking or texting during the show.
- Please enter quietly if the show has already begun.
- Please leave quietly, it's a very quiet neighborhood.
- Kids 10 & under are free at Abbey Arts concerts & arts events unless noted.
- For ADA information at Ballard Homestead, please see www.ballardhomestead.org/rent or email arts(at)fremontabbey.org There is a ramp around back on the south side of the Homestead for wheelchair access. Fremont Abbey is ADA accessible on both levels.

ABBEY ARTS, SEATTLE | NONPROFIT 501C3, NON-RELIGIOUS, EST. 2005
Presenting welcoming music, arts & cultural experiences for people of all ages & incomes.

We support low income families, veterans, and humanitarian nonprofit workers with free event tickets. http://www.fremontabbey.org/artsconnect

Venue rental info & more: http://www.fremontabbey.org/rent
Concert & events calendar: http://www.abbeyarts.me

Home Venue: Fremont Abbey, 4272 Fremont Ave North, Seattle, WA 98103 / 206-414-8325
Ballard Homestead: 6541 Jones Ave NW, Seattle

All ticket sales are final unless noted.