Indie folk singer-songwriter and filmmaker Haroula Rose has a lot to show for her work in the time of COVID; her directorial debut Once Upon a River (featuring music from the likes of Rodney Crowell and Will Oldham) made its theatrical and streaming debut toward the end of 2020, and her third LP, Catch the Light, comes out this summer. Like many other creatives, though, Rose also had time to stop and take stock of what her latest single sums up as “The Nature of Things.” With a rocking-chair rhythm to the fingerpicking and a glowing, porch-light atmosphere, the song finds Rose questioning the value of keeping busy.
“I think one of the positives of this time was finding space to appreciate all that we have been gifted, but it also gave us time to contemplate what it means to be on an inner journey,” she says. “That running around may not be the richest experience, but going deeper, inward, can lead to profound appreciation and humility. That confronting what we may have been avoiding is powerful, and that life is about the people that we love and not necessarily the places we go or the things we accomplish."
Catch the Light marks Rose’s first time as a co-producer, and its other singles include the Shakespearean sonnet riff “Time’s Fool” and the stripped-down Chris Stapleton cover “You Should Probably Leave.” You can stream “The Nature of Things” below ahead of the full album’s release on June 17.
