An artist embodying the roar of the sea with a pure and delicate voice, Rose Morrison has seen, and done, a lot in her almost 25 years as a professional musician. The versatile fiddler from Baddeck, Victoria County, has recorded and toured with Oscar and Grammy Award winner Glen Hansard, Irish folk legend Breanndán O Beaglaoich (Breanndán Begley), and celebrated Scottish-Canadian tenor John McDermott. She’s performed twice at Carnegie Hall—most recently in March 2024 during a tribute to Sinéad O’Connor and Shane MacGowan, recorded three albums and travelled all over North America, Europe, and Japan with the Cottars, and won three East Coast Music Awards.
On her latest album, The River She Knows, Rose explores new territory, and after living away from Cape Breton for more than a decade, discovers a new connection to the land and how it shapes her music. While she has firmly established herself as a fiddler drawing from a deep well of fierce, untamed wildness, Rose has also been writing songs for years, though rarely singing or playing them for many people. Until now.
Rose started working on The River She Knows in November 2021, with award-winning singer-songwriter and producer Dave Gunning. The first song she brought to him was “Let Our Love”, a powerful yet simple ode to the kind of love that can sustain one throughout their life. Gunning obviously knows a good song when he hears one, and his encouragement gave Rose the confidence to keep writing and to believe in herself as a songwriter. “Let Our Love” was released to popular and critical acclaim as a single in February 2022.
The River She Knows features nine songs and one tune Rose wrote and co-wrote over the past four years. The album reveals Rose emerging as a poignant and insightful songwriter and speaks of the connections she has discovered—with the river, with the land, with people and love, and ultimately, with herself. In many ways, the river she knows—Peter’s Brook—is that connecting force.
This is Rose’s third solo album, following her 2010 debut The MacKenzie Project and Atlantic, the 2018 East Coast Music Awards’ Instrumental Recording of the Year. It is also one of two albums she has set for release this year—a duo album she recorded with frequent collaborator Breanndán O Beaglaoich is due in the fall.
Rose and Breanndán met in Ireland in 2017 and they immediately found common ground in the music, and the sea. Less than a year later, they were working together on a special project for Celtic Colours International Festival with Rose as Artistic Creator and Director. Voices of the Naomhóg included artists and musicians from Nova Scotia, Ireland, and Scotland making traditional Irish row boats and traditional music, Gaelic song, and dance. Some of this music will be featured on their album.
In addition to recording and performing herself, Rose has also spent the past three years as Artistic Director of the Little Church in Big Baddeck concert series at the Vicar’s View venue. The popular series showcases international artists in a quaint and intimate setting, nestled beside the Baddeck River that flows from Peter’s Brook. Rose feels the connection here too, between these two bodies of water and how one feeds the other, and how they are both connected to her ancestors.
