From the genre-bending folk-rocking Accidentals to the darkly rock tendencies of teenage piano-pop maestro Ian Ridenhour, it wouldn’t be out of line to describe a large subset of rising indie music as “precocious”. Sixteen-year-old Ayla Rose gleefully joins these ranks as she deservedly bubbles up to the top of the scene with her soulful vocals and stunning command of her musical identity, straddling the line between soul, jazz, blues, western swing, reggae, and more with relative ease. No need to wear kiddie gloves here — Rose’s performance should be just fairly amongst her adult contemporaries, to which she arguably amounts in talent to many who’ve been hitting the electric for more years than she’s even been alive.
Rose is joined by a bevy of legacy talent on her cover of the Tracy Chapman classic, “Give Me One Reason” — Dave Mattacks (Elton John) on drums, Kevin Barry (Roseanne Cash) on rhythm, Jesse Williams on bass, and fellow teen Tyler Morris on guitar. They each serve their purpose in masterfully meshing together as the jam band beside Rose, and together, they really rock it out like the best of them.