Listen to the full interview with Amaya Rose.
Amaya Rose is a 15-year-old from Paso Robles who will perform a concert of bluegrass, country, and Americana music at the Temple Beth El in Santa Maria on March 9. Like her performance at Temple Beth El last year, banjoist Julio Boysenberry and guitarist Ron Miller will join Rose for a concert of country classics and some originals by the young champion fiddler and singer-songwriter.
Sun Arts Editor Joe Payne chatted with Rose about her upcoming performance, how her sound has changed in the last year, and what it was like to open for her country hero Merle Haggard in December of last year.
Joe Payne: Hi Amaya, we last spoke over a year ago, before your last performance at Temple Beth El, how did that go?
Amaya Rose: I had a great time. The audience was really great. Overall, it was a fun performance, and I really enjoyed it.
JP: So, you’re coming down again for the last Saturday in March, what do you think people are going to hear at this concert?
AR: Well, I think I’m going to be doing, possibly, a couple of originals, some fiddle tunes, I’ll be playing the guitar a little bit, and maybe there will be some songs in foreign languages too.
JP: What languages?
AR: Probably Spanish. I do sing in Italian too, but most likely I will be singing in Spanish.
JP: Is that kind of a different style than the old-time country Western stuff you do?
AR: I’m singing it slightly different, but it basically has the same kind of feel.
JP: Since we last talked, I have also noticed a bunch of new videos on your website, like “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.”
AR: Patsy Montana wrote that back in the 1930s, which was the first song by a female artist to ever go Platinum. Since I yodel, and that’s an iconic yodeling song, I figured I would cover that one.
JP: One thing that’s different from last year, I have noticed, is that you have come out full force with the yodeling. Is that something you’ve been working on?
AR: Actually, Monte Mills, who I play fiddle for and I’m one of the lead singers in his band, the Lucky Horseshoe Band, he taught me how to yodel. He’s a really great yodeler himself, and so he basically showed me the basics, and since my voice had a natural tendency for yodeling, it wasn’t hard for me to pick up some of the yodeling patterns, and I’ve just worked at getting them faster and using them in songs like “Cowboy’s Sweetheart” or the song I wrote about half a year ago called “Yodeling Cowgirl.”
JP: Do you have any albums out right now?
AR: I have an older one out that Monte Mills produced when I was 13. My sound has really changed since then, both in the fiddling and the vocals. We are looking at getting a six-track demo CD out, and it will have a lot more originals on it. It will definitely be a lot more up to date with what I sound like now. That will be out soon.
JP: Just within a year I have heard your sound change quite a bit, so how did that happen, and why, do you think?
AR: Well, I listen to a lot of music, so stylistically I’ve opened up a little more. Retro country is still my forte, but I listen to a lot of pop and retro country like Merle Haggard, but one of my favorite genres is old time rock, especially Linda Ronstadt. I sing along with her almost every day. Marti Robbins, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, LeAnn Rimes, and Linda Ronstadt are probably the five most influential singers in my career, and I draw a lot of my sound from a kind of combination of them. As far as my vocal ability, I’ve just been practicing a lot and I’ve had some vocal lessons with JP Maddox based in Morro Bay. I’ve been doing a lot of playing by ear and jamming; that’s kind of what I’ve been doing in the last year.
JP: Didn’t you open for Merle Haggard recently?
AR: Yes, I did open for Merle Haggard in December of 2014 in Agoura Hills. That was pretty amazing and a big honor, being able to do that for him.
JP: Did you get to play anything together?
AR: During the sound check I got to play the old-time fiddle tune, it’s also a Texas swing tune, called “Sopping the Gravy,” and Merle really likes that fiddle tune. I played that during the sound check, and he and his wife got on stage and talked with me a little bit about the song; it was pretty awesome.
JP: I also saw a picture of you with Merle’s son on your website. Why do you think young people like yourself have connected to this music, what is special about it?
AR: Speaking for myself, I was raised around the old country sound, especially Emmylou Harris. She was the first person I was really interested in. When I was really young, like 5 or 6, I really liked Roy Rodgers too. My dad kind of introduced me to Merle Haggard, and of course playing with Monte, that’s what he does, is play those great old country and country rock hits. The kind of environment I grew up in, it’s what I grew up hearing and playing, and it’s what I like a lot.
JP: Who will you perform with in Santa Maria at Temple Beth El, and who should come see the show?
AR: Julio and Ron will be backing me up, and I will be backing them up on some songs, too. It will be a kind of trio we will be doing there, and I will play some of my originals and classic covers. If you’re looking for a fun afternoon of bluegrass, country, crossover, folk, some originals, some yodeling, some great banjo playing by Julio, guitar playing and singing by Ron, and some singing and fiddling by me, I think they’ll really enjoy it.
Contact Arts Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 2, 2015.
