Esther Rose – “Good Time”

SXSW 2022 - OEB Score: 7; Popularity Index: 6

Pairs Well With… Iris Dement, June Carter, Joni Mitchell

When we last saw Esther Rose at SXSW 2019, she had been in New Orleans for ten years and had incorporated the city’s spirit and stories into her brand of old-timey Americana and country music. 2022 finds her relocated to New Mexico and coming the Austin to promote her new record, How Many Times, a breakup (and its aftermath) themed album. Like her previous work, the new tracks features throwback pedal steel guitar and fiddle to accompany her tender, light, and wistful voice. Rose’s lyrics also stand out with their attention to small details and frequent sly humor, even in heartbreak. The best songs on this album have earworm choruses such as on “Good Time” (“Having a real good time, it’s a real good time for bad timing, amen.”) and “Keeps Me Running” (Yes, calling you my fire, but every fire needs the wind.”). Rose is also in the running for best 2022 SXSW artist tweet so far – “The curse of an old timey name is that all of my google alerts are obituaries.” Hopefully, the Google algorithm will push this review to the top of her search results, evoking an Esther Rose warm and wry smile.  (David Zlotnick)

2019 Review: In fact, her debut album, This Time Last Night, was recorded live in analog in an old house on the Mississippi River. The record exudes warmth and vulnerability.  She sings a tender and wistful version of old-timey Americana with lots of fiddle and guitar, but she makes it feel modern and relevant, probably because the songs are so precise and timeless. This is all the more surprising because Rose only became a professional musician in the last few years.  She moved to New Orleans almost a decade ago where she managed an art gallery in the French Quarter.  Although she had written songs in her head, “non-seriously” her whole life, only more recently did she feel that the songs “were kind of coming at me.”