Rose Sinclair

ROSE SINCLAIR played multiple instruments in bands for years, entertaining at festivals, honky tonks, and theaters in the United States, Canada, and Europe, from NYC’s Town Hall to the Carter Family Fold. In 2000, she became obsessed by the steel guitar and never looked back, eventually moving to Austin, TX in 2012 to focus on western swing and learn from legendary steel players including Maurice Anderson, Denny Mathis, Pee Wee Whitewing, and Herb Steiner. In 2013 Rose released a steel guitar record, Lone Star Landing, then hit the road to play steel guitar for Wayne Hancock from 2014-2019 in the U.S., Spain and Brazil, and appears on his 2016 album, Slingin’ Rhythm [Bloodshot Records].

During the 2020 pandemic, Rose spent the lockdown woodshedding with guitarist Sophia Johnson, and produced an album of twin guitar music, Harmony Grits, under the band name Ida Red, which reached #3 on the International Western Music Association western swing chart and nominated for 2021 IWMA Cowboy Swing Album. Ida Red has since morphed into the 5-piece band, The Women of Western Swing (The WOWS), with the addition of Georgia Parker-bass, Katy Rose Cox-fiddle, and Karen Biller-drums.

Rose continues to front her own quintet playing Cocktail Steel — a mix of big band swing tunes and bossanovas, and released the 2021 album, Wave, garnering attention from Vintage Guitar Magazine, and a podcast interview for Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Nashville’s Steve Dawson.  Her new 2023 release, Corcovado, fuses steel guitar and vibraphone, with piano, Hammond organ, upright bass, drums and percussion, exploring the world of tiki lounge, bossanova, space age bachelor pad music.

Rose plays with her cocktail steel quintet on Sundays at Sam’s Town Point in Austin, TX, and curates Steel Monday, a weekly steel guitar residency at Sam’s, featuring a different steel player each week. She has played the main stage at the International Steel Guitar Association in St. Louis, the Texas Steel Guitar Association Jamboree in Dallas, as well as the Southern Illinois, Denver, Nashville, Phoenix, Tulsa, and Branson steel guitar shows, and was voted 2018 Steel Guitar Player of the Year by the Texas Steel Guitar Association.

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STEEL GUITAR PLAYER
toured with Wayne Hancock 2014-2019

* 2023 Corcovado album release
* 2022 Wave album reviewed in Vintage Guitar Magazine July 2022
* 2021 Nominee for Instrumentalist – Academy of Western Artists
* 2021 Nominee for Western Swing Group (Ida Red) – Academy of Western Artists
* 2021 Nominee for Western Swing Album (Harmony Grits) – Academy of Western Artists
* 2021 Nominee for Western Swing Song (Ida Blue) – Academy of Western Artists
* 2021 #3 on International Western Music Association western swing chart: Ida Red’s Harmony Grits album
* 2021 Nominee for Cowboy Swing Album – International Western Music Association: Ida Red’s Harmony Grits album
* 2020 Nominee for Instrumentalist – Academy of Western Artists
* 2020 Nominee for Musician – Ameripolitan Music Awards
* 2019 Nominee for Musician – Ameripolitan Music Awards
* 2018 Texas Steel Guitar Player of the Year – Texas Steel Guitar Association
* 2018 Nominee for Musician – Ameripolitan Music Awards
* 2018 Nominee for Instrumentalist – Academy of Western Artists
* 2017 Nominee for Musician – Ameripolitan Music Awards
* 2016 Runner Up Player of the Year – Texas Steel Guitar Association
* 2016 Nominee for Musician – Ameripolitan Music Awards
* 2015 Nominee for Instrumentalist – Academy of Western Artists
* 2014 Nominee for Instrumentalist – Academy of Western Artists
* 2013 Nominee for Album (Lone Star Landing) – Academy of Western Artists
* 2013 Nominee for Instrumentalist – Academy of Western Artists

Photo by Chuck Interrante.

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PAST PROJECTS

As a multi-instrumentalist, Rose has toured with various bands across the U.S., Canada and Europe, making appearances on “A Prairie Home Companion,” “Mountain Stage,” “E-Town,” West Coast Live,” the BBC, the Voice of America, and venues from Town Hall in NYC to the Carter Family Fold. Her arsenal included various banjos, single and triple-row button accordions, piano accordion, upright bass, acoustic guitar, piano, harmonium, ukulele, mbira, and tap shoes. Rose has taught at music camps including Centrum, Ashokan and Augusta Heritage Center, and appears on over 30 recordings, and four independent film soundtracks.

Rose was a founding member (along with Tara Nevins [Donna the Buffalo], Beverly Smith and June Drucker) of Green Linnet recording artists the Heartbeats Rhythm Quartet, an influential alt-trad stringband that toured extensively in the U.S., Canada and Germany during 1986-1996.

Based in western Massachusetts from 1996-2011, Rose played steel guitar with Girl Howdy and Twin Guitar Swing, upright bass with the Westernaires, and button accordion with Planet Zydeco. She also did West Coast and European tours playing banjo, slide guitar, harmonium and ukulele with the San Francisco-based Crooked Jades, who were cited in 2009 by prestigious British magazine fRoots as “one of the 10 reasons to celebrate American roots music.”

In 2009 she worked with African dance choreographers Chuck Davis and Amaniyea Payne as a musician and body percussionist with the Sankofa Dance Project.

In May 2010, she was part of a residency in San Francisco with the Crooked Jades and the Kate Weare modern dance company. The collaborative piece, “Bright Land,” was premiered at the Joyce Theater in New York City in August 2010, and on the West Coast at ODC in San Francisco in April 2011.

In May 2011, she recorded and performed with Tara Nevins at Levon Helms’ studio in Woodstock, NY (Midnight Ramble), as well as the Americana Music Association Conference in Nashville in October of that year.

In 2012, Rose moved to Austin, TX to focus on the non-pedal steel guitar and western swing.  In 2013, Rose recorded with Joel Savoy’s Honky Tonk Merry-Go-Round (Valcour Records), and had the honor of playing three Louisiana Crossroads shows, backing up Grand Ole Opry star Jimmie C. Newman.

In 2014, she started touring nationally with Wayne Hancock.