The timing of Caroline Rose‘s new video could scarcely be more fitting. “Blood On Your Bootheels,” her reaction to Trayvon Martin’s death, comes in the aftermath of the protests in Ferguson and amid ongoing debates on racial inequality and gun violence.
Videos by American Songwriter
Rose juxtaposes the heaviness of the questions she raises in the video with the lightness of the medium she uses. She used a dozen jumbo bags of Skittles to create a stop-motion film that mixes images of guns, flickering TV sets and American-made slogans in kaleidoscopic arrays.
“Something was channeling through me, because that song is written from perspectives that aren’t mine,” Rose told NPR. “It triggered all these thoughts about peoples’ obsession with guns, how there’s very little escape from violence for young black guys in the U.S…I thought about how this boy was holding a package of Skittles in his hand when he died, and how something as innocent as a pack of candy could be powerful and symbolic to pretty much any type of person.”
Social consciousness has been a part of Rose’s songwriting since her 2013 debut, America Religious.
“It’s just like: look around,” she told us in an interview last June. “There are so many problems everywhere, especially… Well, that’s like a whole can of worms, I could just talk about it forever. But from the songwriting perspective, it’s never interested me whatsoever to write songs that don’t have some sort of fundamental value.”
I Will Not Be Afraid, Rose’s follow-up to America Religious, was released August 19 via Little Hi! Records/Thirty Tigers. Catch her performing it at one of her tour dates, listed below.
Caroline Rose Tour Dates:
Sept 27 – Houston, TX McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
Sept 28 – Dallas, TX Index Fest (w/ Mute Math)
Sept 30 – Austin, TX Cactus Café
Oct 1 – Waco, TX Common Grounds
Oct 2 – Midland, TX ArtZen
Oct 7 – Los Angeles, CA Hotel Café
Oct 8 – San Francisco, CA Brick & Mortar Music Hall
Oct 11 – Seattle, WA The Vera Project
Oct 12 – Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 14 – Spokane, WA The Bartlett (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 15 – Boise, ID Neurolux (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 17 – Salt Lake City, UT The State Room (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 18 – Colorado Springs, CO (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 19 – Denver, CO Bluebird Theater (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 22 – Minneapolis, MN Cedar Cultural Center (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 23 – Stoughton, WI Stoughton Opera House (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 24 – Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 25 – Detroit, MI The Shelter (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 26 – Indianapolis, IN Deluxe @ Old National Centre (w/ Noah Gundersen)
Oct 28 – Nashville, TN High Watt
Oct 30 – Louisville, KY Zanzabar
Nov 1 – Knoxville, TN Barley’s Taproom
Nov 11 – Allston, MA Great Scott
Nov 12 – Bayport, NY Grey Horse Tavern
Nov 13 – New York, NY Mercury Lounge
Nov 14 – Asbury Park, NJ The Saint
Nov 15 – Brooklyn, NY The Knitting Factory
Nov 18 – Northampton, MA Iron Horse Music Hall
Nov 19 – New Haven, CT BAR
Nov 20 – Arlington, VA IOTA
Nov 21 – Philadelphia, PA
Nov 22 – Pittsburgh, PA Club Café
Nov 23 – Rochester, NY Lovin’ Cup
Nov 25 – Toronto, CAN
Dec 9 – Portsmouth, NH The Press Room
Dec 10 – Providence, RI Fete Lounge
Dec 11 – Kingston, NY BSP Lounge
Dec 12 – Ithaca, NY The Haunt
Dec 13 – Wellsville Creative Arts Center
