Wistful tenderness emerges out of the debris of Hurricane Helene.
“Atmosphere” is the third album from North Carolina-based singer/songwriter Alexa Rose, with ten songs partly shaped by the devastation heaped on her community by Hurricane Helene. It’s not the first time Rose has conjured aching beauty out of the most trying of times – after all, her previous album, “Headwaters“, was written during the pandemic – but Hurricane Helene had a far more direct impact on this album.
Born in the Alleghany Highlands of Western Virginia, Alexa Rose was raised in the tiny railroad town of Clifton Forge. She moved in 2013 to study music at Appalachian State University, and she continues to be based in North Carolina. After graduating in 2016, she took to the road with her own songs, and she’s been touring ever since, playing her music in little towns and cities across the USA. The people living in these quiet backwaters, the countryside that surrounds them, and the big skies above have inspired much of Rose’s music. Given her deep love of her Appalachian home, it’s no surprise she chose to record the album at Betty’s, a bright, airy studio nestled in the bucolic North Carolina woods. However, shortly after the session, Hurricane Helene hit the western part of the state, washing away lives and landscapes in the hometowns of half the band.
As Rose tried to come to terms with the storm’s terrible devastation on the lives of friends and family, she found herself re-evaluating the record she’d just recorded. “I related to the music in a different way,” says Rose. “I had just moved into a new place after losing access to my house, and felt a little tossed around the way everyone did. The experience deepened my love for my home and my belief in the resilience of the land and communities in Appalachia.”
In the aftermath, Rose spent the following winter re-recording some of the songs at home in her cabin outside Asheville. The polished studio performances made way for a sparser, more intimate approach. “Stripping the songs down felt truer: nothing to hide behind anymore, but believing the roots are strong enough to hold.”
This more minimalist treatment of the songs definitely highlights the simple purity of her voice, and across the album, Rose lets her voice take its rightful place – front and centre. However, her beautiful singing is very ably supported by sensitive, thoughtful musicianship across the board. When you look at the pedigree of the supporting musicians, it’s hardly a surprise: pedal steel from Mat Davidson (Twain, Big Thief), percussion from Dom Billet (Dr. Dog, The Weather Station), bass from Jeff Ratner (Langhorne Slim), cello from Hilary James (Matt Pond PA, Esmé Patterson), banjo from Helena Rose (Holler Choir), and fine vocal harmonies from Josh Oliver (Watchhouse, Tyler Childers). The album is produced by Ryan Gustafson of The Dead Tongues and mixed by Grammy-winning Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Prine).
It doesn’t feel like there’s anything even close to a placeholder track on this album, with every song more than warranting its inclusion. The dreamy, languid ‘Anywhere OH’ is a particular favourite, with its deftly understated violin line and ethereal harmonies. Likewise, ‘Lilacs’ is a timelessly beautiful song, recalling her family home and the quiet backroads that wind through the hills of Alleghany County, Virginia. Closing track, ‘Lighter’, strips things back to a minimal arrangement, mainly acoustic guitar and a perfectly weighted vocal harmony in support of Rose’s heartbreakingly beautiful delivery.
In her own words, “This collection of songs feels like the truest thing I’ve ever made.”
