A Farewell To Jack Rose

I was friends with a lot of people who were close to Jack. It always surprised me that he knew my name, after all I was just some dork who took pictures at shows. Last time I saw him was @ a Halloween party at the Espers Compound shooting the shit with Tom Carter. He gave me a big smile and a hello. I was at the last John Fahey show. I feel sorry for Glenn Jones, first Fahey, now Jack.

Here are my pix of Jack I have shot over the years. Feel free to re-post, just give a photo credit if you do.

See Link Below:

http://amplitude-photography.blogspot.com/search?q=jack+rose

Caught his show in Penryn a few weeks back. He was amazing... Will be sadly missed.

I just found out today...

I only stumbled upon Jack's music about a year ago and really meant to catch him play sometime, but now this can never happen.

I don't really know what to write here, but I'd like to make it plain that Jack's music has been & will continue to be a source of much joy... timeless, hypnotic, arresting and profoundly beautiful.

Thank you Jack.

Maybe play John Fahey's "Requiem for Mississippi John Hurt" during the "Goodbye Jack" show, that would be nice...

I met jack through my brother-in-law about seven years ago right after my wife and I had moved to Philadelphia. My wife's brother had played with Jack on tour a couple times and arranged to meet him at his house while visiting us. Jack introduced us to Yard's beer, at the time was brewed a few blocks from his house, which I recall had an enormous second floor bathroom. He and his wife debated the merits of Pinback, whom he called the Steely Dan of our musical generation, technically perfect but soulless.

That night we listened to Starsailor by Tim Buckley and If I Only Knew My Name by David Crosby, which Jack called the best psych-folk album of all time. I think any song off either of those albums would be a fitting tribute, but perhaps "Music is Love" from David Crosby would be the best. It is a truth Jack obviously knew.

I never spoke to Jack again, but remember that night clearly. This year I helped arrange an outdoor concert series in the summer. Jack played our final show after being rained out for his initial date. It was one of his last shows. I am proud to have touched the hem of his garment in some way.

I am shocked and saddened by the news about the death of Jack Rose.

I only met Jack once, when I organized a concert with him in Umeå, Sweden in may 2007.It was such a great evening, his playing was so inspired and inspiring, and a surprizingly big crowd showed up to listen, and be spellbound, by his fingerpicking skills.After the gig several of his new and old fans joined us to a local pub for a drink. Jack was in a great mood, drank swedish whiskey and talked about Fahey AND norwegian black metal... He said it was one of the best gigs on the tour ("the best since Colchester..").

Farewell, Jack, and Thank you. I am glad to have met you and my thoughts go to those near and dear to you.

Here's a short clip from the concert in Umeå:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwfHztFzdL0

Cant believe this news. What a guy. Farewell Jack....

R.I.P

David-

First time I came down to Cornwall was with Jack, & the entire way down he couldnt stop talking about the place or you guys. He really loved it down there & he passed that love onto me. We had such a blast the night we played at Ms. Peapods. Fish and chips by the sea, good music and good ales = great times. I know he loved you guys alot. Thanks for writing this david-

x

Keith

I have read all the wonderful tributes to Jack on this site. You all loved him for his talent and his friendship. That is wonderful and true testament to the man that he had become. I knew him as a boy and went to school with him in Virginia. We were co editors of our school paper and needless to say there were many times that we butted heads. However regardes of weither or not we agreed on things I truly admired him. Even in high school Jack knew what he wanted his life to be like. While the rest of us were milling around and wasting our lives he was not. He knew who he was and he didn't apologize for that. He left a mark on so many of us that years can never erase. It has been 19 years since I had seen Jack and he is still as vivid in my memory now as he was back then. Rest in peace Jack.

yes i echo what keith wrote david - you and penryn meant a lot to jack.

i dont know if i can add to what you've said in your piece, youve pretty much said what i feel - it takes a special person to be as brutally frank as jack was and still be so loveable. of course he was also very warm and big hearted...

i drove jack and the black twigs around the uk last month and couldnt have hoped for better company to share the car with over 2200 miles. it was a very special week, as i knew before the bad news arrived this weekend.

if you want suggestions of what to play, you know jack loved his germans, especially neu! and early kraftwerk, and he loved fleetwood mac and buckingham/nicks; we also discovered a mutual love for brian eno's 'here come the warm jets' and talk talk's 'spirit of eden' during many hours in the car.

cheers

lee

One of my most beloved musical experiences was seeing Pelt perform at Hole in the Wall in Richmond, Virginia. I will miss Jack Rose.

david,

thank you so, so, so much for writing this -- you're an erudite, sensitive, & discriminating writer, and the reflections here are fucking spot on and capture part of what made jack such a force of nature. he loved you guys and always spoke in such reverent terms about his times in cornwall. your hospitality that night after the peapods gig was true, honest, and warm. that evening was one of several highlights of a trip filled with amazing moments.

as for songs on the radio, here are a couple deep cut suggestions of tracks jack was really digging on lately:

crazy horse - 'she's hot'. first track from 'crazy moon' (their fifth album?). most of the album sucks but that first track is so awesomely sleezy. i remember bringing that lp over to jacks and his face/laughter upon hearing that first song is unforgettable.

mordicai jones - 'the coca cola sign blinds my eyes.' a cut from one of three of link wray's 'three track shack' albums that jack adored. funny, the mordicai album was always my least favorite of the three, but this lp held mythic power of jack. one night after a gig the twigs and jack and our friend greg were listening to this, and greg blurts out 'idunno jack, this sounds like steven fucking tyler dude' and we all had a good, long laugh.

thanks again, david

jack was a cherished friend over many years, one of those rare people whose very existence somehow protected you. this is a wonderful and touching tribute, david. you've captured a large part of the man's spirit. thanks for sharing this.

Hey there. Thanks for writing this. I've known Jack for many years. Lived in the same town. Played at some of the same gigs. I'm a "more than casual" Pelt fan. Me and Jack used to have spirited conversations at the cigar store he worked here in Blacksburg, Va (years before he moved to Philly). The news has me dumbfounded.

Thank you for writing such beautiful things about a mutual friend. He will be missed.

Play Long Distance Winner or anything else from "Buckingham Nicks." He liked that record a lot.

Jack Rose grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He lived on the lower side of the University Of Mary Washington. He started playing the guitar at age 10. What a talent! Growing up with him let me watch his developing talent. Even though I have not seen him years, he touched the my with his music. He was not only friends with my brother and sister, he was friends with many of Fredericksburg. We will miss him.

I first met Jack Rose in the May of 2004. I had been a fan of his recorded work for maybe a year at this time. “Red Horse White Mule” had hit hard, as had the notion of a guy laid off from his job as a line cook, honing his picking style over the course of a brutal Southern winter. He had been booked for a live radio session and I’d got wind of it somehow. I had called the station, asking whether it might be possible to get audience tickets for the Friday evening recording. They sounded a little confused, but I didn’t think too much of it, not least as they agreed to let me sit in on the session. I arrived with two friends, expecting some matinee gala crowd, all there to see and hear the foremost living exponent of transcendental blues guitar. It wasn’t what I had expected, there was no one there. The mic was live when we sloped into the room, we sat in silence, transfixed, ecstatic, in cascades of austere hillside mantras. The roar of the earth and the fury or the waterfall, carried through this vessel not 35 years old. Jack sat there on his stool, half glances and sometimes smiles cast around. When they shut the mic down there was perhaps ten seconds of silence. Then wild adulation, appreciation, deep friendships forged in seconds. We went out drinking that night. Crazy picaresque narratives, much like the river song flurries of earlier times. Tales of blues player long gone, modern city living, hopes, heartaches, drinking stuff. ??There was more the next day. Lap dog slide in a beer garden, we the luckiest fans you can imagine. Now friends with this hero, a grizzly bear with the kindest manners you ever saw. Extremely polite, but wholly animated, a gentleman and an auto didact scholar. Reverence, compassion and humanity, all so rare in these times of ours.??I next saw Jack the following winter. He had some UK shows booked and sought alms in my crumbling Victorian apartment. No snow on the ground but a malignant January busy with sleet, icy wind and biting cold. He arrived with two guitars packed tight and a small bag filled with tee shirts that he’d printed up to sell on tour. We hung out a lot, barbeque steak in mid winter, thick jacketed potatoes steaming and bottles emptied. I remember working in my study one evening, hearing new refrains echoing from the kitchen. He was pulling together new pieces, more devastating still. It was like the sound that lies between between the rain and the rocks in winter downpour. To hear these melodies find form, come together, breathe with confidence and bluster, it was quite something.??The first of the shows was on a Friday evening, upstairs in a spit and sawdust rock venue. He was supporting a scenester band with a noisy entourage. It was a weird dynamic, loud booze mouths shouting over Jack’s eloquent playing. He didn’t take to kindly to it; 

?“ fucking shut up you gap tooth limey mother fuckers” , damn straight, matter of fact. But they didn’t really shut up and it was a shame. Those who cared apologised for the fat city attitude and he said it was pretty much the same in Philly or wherever else he played; right crowd, good times, wrong crowd, an ugly reminder that we’re all just beasts. ??He came back a few more times over the course of the following year, more fans each time, magazines picking up on his talent, hushed tones aplenty, the word going ‘round that he was the real deal. Yet his first festival booking involved a tiny make shift stage, rain pelted in to obscurity while the great and the good of whoever’s nepotism played to rapturous applause across the way. It seemed deeply inappropriate but he clearly didn’t care. The playing was what mattered.??We then hung out in Austin and Rhode Island, good times. His star was rising, famous people paying homage to his amazing power but no change in Jack. He was unfazed by his growing celebrity and always viciously funny, waxing about the things that mattered to him as well as the things that disappointed him. A deeply honest reaching soul.??By the time he next hit the UK, he was a fully accredited ‘star’ with packed out shows, press calls and a new elpee seemingly every second. It was great to see, not least because it was so well deserved. He was busy from then on in and I didn’t see him again properly until just a month a go. He’d just signed a new record deal and had also bought a house with Lori, his dearly loved wife. He was so happy about that, and I was delighted to see a friend really making it. He was in great spirits and seemingly in good health, playing in a trio, which showed a different side to his style and talent. This was fun stuff, jaunty and complicit, not the dark spiralling catharsis of his solo extrapolations, a different wonderment. So, I said good night to Jack, laughter and fare thee well. See you soon, don’t leave it so long.

Stuart Souter, London, 07/12/09

It's horrible news - 38 is no age to be going. Thanks for sharing this and I'll do my best to catch the radio show.

This was truly a heartfelt and fitting tribute to Jack Rose. He was immensely talented and his music has brought me much joy over the years. It's always a little harder when someone goes before their time with the promise of so much more to come. My heart goes out to his friends and family.

I just heard of this fantastic musician in the last two days; sorry to hear of his passing.

Could you give a link to your last.fm channel? I couldn't figure out what specifically to search for,and wanted to listen to more of Jack's music. thanks

Just to say thankyou to all of those who have emailed suggestions for songs to be played tonight. We have far too many now, and will do our best to play a representative selection.

Regarding the internet stream of the show, those with Mac's may have a couple of problems so we'd recommend you try connecting to the community radio via the link above in advance in order to iron out any troubles.

All the best, thankyou for these comments.

Loved the radio show David, was very moving. The Jim Morrison link made me lol too.

Farewell Jack.