Alessandra Rose and James Lanman were musicians in Seattle when they met a baker’s dozen years ago. For almost that long, they’ve been talking about doing a show of holiday music together.
That talk becomes reality Dec. 11, when Port Orchard native Rose and San Franciscan Lanman perform “Holiday Classics” show at 6 p.m. at the Roxy Theatre. Tickets are $25. An afternoon show was canceled.
When they met, she was singing and playing with The Kindness Kind, and he fronting his own band, The Good Hurt. “Our first duet was with the Seattle Rock Orchestra at the Moore Theatre, and from there we did a live video recording of a holiday song that has thousands of views.”
At the Roxy, Rose and Lanman will front a full band, including keyboardist Christopher Jones, drummer Colby Ostheimer and bassist Jason Swanson. Jones was at the piano when Rose did a “Holiday Classics” at the Roxy in 2021, a celebration not just of the season but of the relaxation of some of the COVID-19 safeguards that had made live performance more or less an impossibility for the 18 months prior.
“To play for a community that allowed me to develop and grow as a musician from a very young age, it was incredibly rewarding,” she said.
For her concert with Lanman, “We each wrote our lists, songs we love and know, songs we’ve previously recorded and performed,” she said. “The set is dynamic, with lots of harmonies and emotion.”
Rose said the two friends had a “long catch-up-on-life conversation” in October, which resulted in their new recording of “Blue Christmas.” They sing the Elvis classic more in the style of a Patsy Cline-Johnny Cash country sound.
Rose, a South Kitsap High School graduate who now lives in Bremerton with her two children, also spent time in the recording studio as a solo act in 2022, traveling to Nashville to record.
“I’m hoping I can take this album in a direction I have never let myself go before,” said Rose, who saw her music career slowed by first motherhood, then COVID. “I plan to be on the road playing for people in new towns and new spaces.”
Rose said she’d like this hometown concert to become an annual event. “It’s hard to make a profit doing live music, but we’re hoping people come to these shows so we’re able to make this a tradition.”
Michael C. Moore is Arts and Entertainment reporter for The Admiral Theatre Foundation.
