Loni Rose

"If you like your country pop with catchy but personal songs, and with guitar licks sweeter than pumpkin pie, then look no further. Loni Rose has already had her songs featured in movies like American Pie and Lovewrecked, and in TV showes such as The Hills and America's Next Top Model. Often recalling such luminaries as Sheryl Crow or Lucinda Williams, Rose's soulful, clear voice is immediately engaging and she can turn on the gentle rasp when she wants. She's quite deft with melodies and knows just when to throw in the unexpected chord change that keep the songs rewarding on each repeated listen. This is high quality guitar pop/rock with a country edge and top notch playing and production. " - CDBaby - CD Baby

You’re going to find something very familiar about Seattle's Loni Rose. You might not be able to place her, but you’ll be pretty sure you’ve heard her before. You’ll probably be right. Breaking into the spotlight by winning a spot on Lilith Fair in 1999, Loni Rose has never slowed down. More than twenty of her songs have been featured in television shows or the movies since then. Her credits include Providence, Roswell, Jack & Jill, America’s Next Top Model, Meet My Folks, Bad Girls Club, The Hills and MTV’s Road Rules. On the feature film side her songs have been heard in Life Without Dick and the teen classic American Pie. 2008 sees the release of a new CD, The Shine Sessions. Rose is in classic form here.

Loni Rose has a sweet pop sound that is easy on the ears. Her music is infectious and mildly addictive, with melodies that stick around your forebrain for days at a time. The Shine Sessions opens with just such a song, Wrong Way Back. This moves on to Don't Give Up, a chin-up song with Americana roots. Trying Hard is a fun country flavored rock song with a positive message. It's followed by its spiritual yang, Soft Place To Fall, about a relationship full of promise that has faded.

Dangerous is a pure country rock song about loving bad boys, and is a fun song. Other highlights include Until and Shine. Loni Rose has a voice that is sweet and soft with just a little rasp to it. The color and timbre in her voice is interesting and unusual, and means that most anything she sings will capture your attention. Rose also has an ability to write songs that fit the soundtrack of America. It's no wonder then that many of her songs have been licensed for use on TV shows. It's also surprising for all of this that she's not a household name by now. The Shine Sessions is an outstanding release, with great songs and top of the line musicianship. Loni Rose is one artist you should be seeking out.
-Wildy's World - Wildy's World

Her year to shine: Monroe country artist is on the verge of national fame

BY POLLY KEARY, editor

Loni Rose of Monroe, at the age of 9, walked into the kitchen of her parents’ missionary home in Nairobi, Kenya, and made an announcement. “Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a singer,” she said.

She never changed her mind.

Now, more than 20 years later, with a new album featuring members of Everclear and the Kelly Clarkson band and national attention focused on her, her devotion to that one overriding goal appears to be about to pay off big.

Early promise

Loni Rose has been on the verge of fame for longer than most musicians’ careers last. It wasn’t long after she began her career in earnest that she started getting the kind of attention songwriters dream of.

From her home in Shoreline, where her parents moved after returning form Africa, the teenaged singer began perching with her guitar on stools in Starbucks around Seattle and performing her own original music. “I’d do these ‘tours’ where I’d go to different Starbucks and sit and sing my songs,” said the singer at a Monroe restaurant Wednesday. “My first album was called ‘Radio Flyer.’ It was a six-song EP I sold at shows.”

Her early efforts soon brought her some influential help. She got a manager, and that manager served her well. “I had a manager named Wayne Ledbetter, and I have to give him credit for getting me in the door,” said Loni Rose. “He made hundreds of calls a day to TV and film people. He had a lot of relationships and my music fit the times.”

In 1993, not yet 20, she wrote a Christmas song called “Evergreen Christmas” that landed on the annual “Northwest Favorite Christmas in the Northwest” CD. In 1999, Loni Rose’s song, “I Never Thought You’d Come” landed on the soundtrack of comedy blockbuster “American Pie,” and things began to change.

Almost famous

“I got my first royalty check and said, ‘Wow, this could happen,’” said Loni Rose.

It did.

Her EP “Starlight,” recorded at a Seattle studio, was a major success. “Every single song on that EP has been a title track in a movie, a promo song, or on TV,” she said. “That went into the stratosphere.”In the mean time, Loni Rose was also entering contests. And she’s seldom entered a contest she didn’t win.

But the same year “Starlight” was released, she won the Lilith Fair competition in Seattle. That got her a spot performing alongside Sarah MacLauchlan and Sheryl Crow at the Lilith Fair Music Festival that summer, an all-female music festival.

In 2003, she won Seattle’s Battle of the Girlbands, a contest put on by Kiss 106.1 FM, and got to open for the radio station’s Summer Music Festival and Cheney Stadium with Nelly Furtado, Vertical Horizon and Smashmouth.Her songs continued to place in successful movies and TV shows, including films Life Without DIck, A Perfect Romance and Lovewrecked and TV shows America’s Next Top Model, Road Rules, Meet My Folks, and The Hills.

All along the way, it seemed like she was just a moment away from major success. For example, following her win at Lilith Fair, she was flown to New York and brought to L.A. for music industry meet-and-greets.

“I did a showcase at the Mint in L.A. in 2002, and 300 people came out fromt eh music industry, but I didn’t get signed,” she said. “And a couple years later I went back to New York to sing for the head of Columbia Records. I almost got signed, but I didn’t get signed.”

The Shine Sessions

In 2004, Loni Rose moved to Index, into a little century-old house, in order to give her new baby son wonderful first years in a magical place, she said. While there, she wrote the music for what would be a breakthrough album for her, called “The Shine Sessions.”

In 2005, she got funding to record the album in Austin, Texas. She put the album on CD Baby, an internet outlet for independent artists, and it was chosen from among 300,000 others as an Editor’s Pick. Then last year, right about the time she moved to Monroe, she entered one last contest, a contest she thought at the time might be make or break for her.

It was a alt-country contest put on by a major company, and the contest was decided by internet vote. “I won it by 200,000 votes,” she said.

Three weeks later, she was hustled into the studio to record another album. “I went into the studio with Eliot Mazer, who did Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” album,” she said. That album isn’t yet available to the general public, but it earned her interest in the music industry. “I went to Nashville, met with a bunch of managers, and shared my story,” she said. “ I found an early believer in Scott Simon, who managed Tim McGraw for 12 years.”

Since March, she’s been working with some of the music industry’s most famous and successful song writers on a new album. “It’s been amazing,” said the blond-tressed vocalist. Among those she’s worked with recently include Jeff Trott, one of Sheryl Crow’s collaborators, Everclear bassist Sam Hudson and drummer Dave French and Grammy-nominated folk stalwart Shawn Mullins. And she’s been talking with some major booking agencies about a national tour. “Things are starting to explode after all these years and all this work,” she said.

Enjoy the Journey

It’s been a long, hard journey, with more famine than feast, these last two decades. But it’s been rewarding, too, said Loni Rose. “Every morning I drink my coffee out of a cup that says ‘Enjoy the Journey,’” said Loni Rose. “That’s what it’s all about.”

She is excited about an upcoming show at which she will share the story of the journey with concert-goers.

Friday, Aug. 21, she is performing at Seattle’s Shafer Baillie Mansion, jsuUSt a block from Volunteer Park on Seattle’s historic Millionaire’s Row. “It’s kind of a story-teller show,” she said. “I’ll be talking about each song, and songwriting.”It will be a story of dedication to a goal, but more than that, it is the story of a life lived in music, a journey with merit of its own, regardless of the outcome. Although the outcome is looking promising indeed.

“I am very blessed right now,” said Loni Loni Rose. - Monroe Monitor