“Rosalie” is one of those girls names that, if a folkie is naming a song after, you are filled with a solemn dread. Let’s be honest, if Her name is Rosalie, you are fucked. The name, such a flower to a garden, so sweet smelling and gentle, the romance MUST END BAD, it just has to.
Actually, Jarrod Dickenson, the Waco, Texas native who now lives in, where else , Brooklyn, “Rosalie” romance doesn’t begin too well either “Rosalie I’m on my knees and I swear I won’t let you down”, he sings. Still, with an overlong 45 minutes set to kill before we get to Laura Marling Sunday night, we forgive Jarrod his song title and settle down for a surprisingly pleasant performance.
Jarrod, who I spoke to briefly before his set and found quite smart, is also amusing and on stage he works both aspects with precision and an acoustic guitar. There is something oddly old fashioned about his visage, like a lumberjack on a diet mugging Robert The Bruce but it is fascinating in an otherworldly way.
All of which is a bit been thereish when you’ve seen as many people with acoustic guitars opening as many shows as I have. Don’t matter how much he resemble a Scottish King you’re still gonna suck. What does matter is your songs and Jarrod writes very good ones.
Working through two albums of folk tunes he alights on some fairly miserable stuff from great depression on “No Work For A working Man” thru lost love over lost love accumulating “California (Do you Still)” and finally, a cheerful song “for all of you still holding out hope” and perhaps his best, “Come What May” before suggesting the rest of us meet him at the bar for a drink after the show.
“Are you buying?” somebody shouts.
“I’m a musician” comes Jarrod’s reply.
A musician and a damned good songwriter as well.
Grade: B+