Local singer-songwriter Gabriella Rose wears her influences, and her family, on her sleeves

For Gabriella Rose, music is a family business. And her mother wasn’t initially crazy about that.

Her mom was a singer and her father was a music producer, meeting as members of the Los Angeles music industry of the late 1990s. It’s not a stretch to say she was a product of that scene, being born in the eclectic and eccentric L.A. neighborhood of North Hollywood. But it was the turbulence surrounding that era in that area that eventually led her mother to move them both to a farm in Northern California, before eventually arriving in Spokane as a teenager.

It was in the Pacific Northwest where the radio and record player in her grandmother’s home became the soundtrack of her early life. The country-western singers she heard kept calling Rose to music, even when her mom was “less than enthused” about her deepening love for the stories told in those old songs.

That love will be on full display Wednesday as Rose takes the Northwest Passages stage Wednesday at the Bing Crosby Theater, opening for New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson. General admission tickets are still available for the event, with doors opening at 6 p.m. Rose will take the stage at 6:30 and Johnson at 7.

“When I think of home, I think of Spokane,” Rose said, despite being from California. She finished out her middle school experience in Spokane before attending Mount Spokane High School. It was early in her time at high school that she began writing her own songs.

With the death of her grandmother, Rose said she was looking for a way to deal with the grief and all of the other changes happening in her life. She said writing songs was her way of processing all that she was feeling and seeing. Soon after, she performed her first show, and she wrote her first professionally produced song as just a 14-year-old.

It was something she was discouraged from at first by her mother, who had seen the troubles of the music industry firsthand. Almost immediately, she took inspiration from the gospel music she heard in her grandmother’s house, as well as the country classics she heard on that old radio, such as Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. And especially Patsy Cline.

Those influences came together to mold Rose’s music into what it is now: a combination of old heart and modern sensibilities. Her latest single, released in May – “Because You Got Caught” – shows off Nashville-level production quality, with snappy songwriting that layers electric and flamenco guitars, along with the percussive cracks of whips and even the neighing of horses.

Yet, despite that layered production, Rose is able to make her music sound just as beautiful with all of those extra elements stripped away. Every song, she said, has to be just as good if it was just her voice and guitar, which is exactly how she will be performing those songs on Wednesday evening.

Rose said she can’t imagine doing anything else with her life. Whenever she has a bad day, it’s made better for herself by strumming her guitar and playing a tune for herself. That’s also the kind of joy she hopes to spread to others with her music, including at Pig Out in the Park this past weekend and an upcoming music festival in Nashville.

Rose has opened for lots of artists, but this will be the first time she has ever opened for an author at a large book club event. It has her excited in a different way.

“I’ve been watching the Longmire TV show since I was a kid, and it is basically my boyfriend’s comfort show,” Rose said. She said that many of the country artists she has met and worked with also watched the show.

The connection between country music and books about a country sheriff make sense, she said. “The one thing I’ve realized is that all artists can learn from other artists, even if those artists aren’t musicians, so I’m excited to see what lessons I learn from seeing and hearing (Johnson).”

Rose said her 20-minute set will lean heavily into the western style of the event, before she goes next to play in Nashville a little later this month.

Links to all of Gabriella Rose’s music videos, as well as her music on streaming platforms, can be found here.