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BIO: Drew Rouse is a proud Native European Canadian writer & musician who tours internationally. Drew follows in a long line of songwriters & storytellers. He is a traditional skáld/poet and every good skáld supports his verse with his harp… in this case Drew’s harp is his guitar, and he passes on ancient Native European wisdoms and understandings through song punctuated with wit, humour & pointed intent. Drew is a traditionalist & cares not for feckless modernities gripes, groans & ignorant assertions. Drew is a fiercely independent writer & musician who has over 100+ original songs & has recorded six low-fi albums so far. He also plays a wide selection of cover songs too. Drew is a constantly touring independently & extensively throughout North America & Europe. He captivates audiences from coast to coast & across the oceans with his authentic & traditional Country Western Folk Rock Music!
Drew has a unique propensity and ability for meshing smooth rhythms and legendary guitar chops with driving rhythms and travelling melodies around deeply relevant subject matter. Drew crafts his songs, not to perpetuate thoughtless escapism & deconstructionism, but rather to fortify thoughtful, independent, constructive critical thinking with lyrics that prompt us to maintain and assert our independence & freedoms while urging us to respect our ancestors, heritage & to protect our future generations while effortlessly deconstructing the deconstructionism of modernity. Never preachy, the result is often described as Folk music, Soul-Folk, Rocking Country, Folk-Rock, Art~Rock & “Country Western Folk Rock Music”. Completely independent, Rocking, Folkish & yes Soulful based in European Folk & North American Country Western roots, but Drew also effortlessly meanders through an array of musical styles and genres within each set. His sound is melodic and powerful with a heightened sensibility that keeps your mind & body moving.
Drew follows in a long tradition of great Native European Canadian singer songwriters and storytellers. Drew is related to the legendary Gordon Lightfoot on his Fathers side. Drew is the real deal, a skáld/poet & troubadour with a Odin/Wotan/Woden’s wondering geist/ghost/spirit & he is on perpetual tour. So keep an eye out for his upcoming performances and his latest releases.
Musically Drew has been deeply influenced by ancient Native European mythology & the musical magic of the Native European peoples. From the mountains of Wales to the Fjords of Norway, to the ancient oak forests of Deutschland & the coastlines of the Celtic & Gaelic Isles, to the hinterlands & coast of the Nordic & Baltic states & to the peaks of the Alps & Pyrenees… it all can be heard in his music. Even the slightly dislocated Native European North American Canadiana & Americana Blue-Grass & mountain picker Celtic & Gaelic Folk music of the New World inspires him too & can be heard in Drew’s music. Plus the symphonic virtuosity of the Germanic pianists, Baroque & Classical orchestras, to the intimate Celtic & Gaelic ancient rhythms & melodies, to the Nordic Kulning, the Celtic drumming & Estonian choirs & also The Big Bands which evolved from the Germanic Beer Hall Brass Bands & European military Marching Bands… & all the Spirit Folk mythology that makes our lives musing & magical. Well, it all comes a calling, crashing & rushing in when Drew performs live & he understands that we are an accumulation & in collaboration with these ancient Ancestral souls who wish that we sing aloud our Native European peoples sacred melodies, words & rhythms & project our ancestors spirit, & free it, unto the lands of our forefathers & into the minds of our future generations with introspective revel & resounding fury. So Hail the ancestors… our magical musical spirits & the supernatural elements of the Native European peoples!
Drew often says “Personally and musically I don’t deal in popularity, technique nor emotions… I deal in honesty, resonance & vibrations. I interpret ancient vibrations that resonate from my Ancestors, tradition & Nature.” Drew’s extensive and constant touring, energetic live performances, paired with Drew’s solid charismatic presence has earned him a very inspired and loyal following worldwide. As Drew always says “All my songs are love songs. Some are of the simple and usual, man meets women & soul meets soul variety, but most are of a more complex nature, like love of life, freedom, forests, mountains, oceans, culture, heritage, justice, inner and outer reflective manifestations of love. Sometimes sweet and other times tough, but all are love songs and none are the lesser”.
Drew has been offered numerous recording and publishing contracts over the years but has always turned them down for deeply principled and ethical reasons. He understood long ago that in signing such “deals” his music would most likely be used to sell toxic, malicious & degenerate products, thus helping perpetuate a toxic paradigm.
Drew is an active Conservationist & has always acted in part as a “Green publisher” and is always interested in licensing his music to truly green products and services, independent films, documentaries, truly environmental groups, heritage and nativist issues, Native European advocacy groups, unconsolidated independent media, public sponsored media, buy-local movements, nationalistic movements, Small Local Family Farmer activist groups, nativist movements & traditionalist movements, Native European identity movements and other such noble causes. As he says when people thank him for the often free use of his music “I’m an energetic philanthropist, its my pleasure!” The times have caught up with Drew’s vision on racially, ethnically, culturally, spiritually & territorially specific indigenous identity & on the lean, clean, green, renewable, geothermal energy conservation paradigm which includes cleaner traditional fuels too… these issues are upon us now and Drew has been busy for years writing the soundtrack & working out some solutions. ie: Drew’s Geothermal Energy Plan
Drew literally pulled himself up by his own bootstraps and through great adversity and against all odds and he still choses to remain completely independent and continues to step up & onto stages free of the highly consolidated music-industry usury. Drew is always busy writing songs that seem to reminiscence of a beautiful future, while others songs like “Chicken Hawks” with it’s scathing and correct assertions on war profiteering scolds the powers that shouldn’t be. Other songs like “Mountain” and “FatWood” warn us about old growth deforestation issues and other forms of destruction & degradation of Nature but also songs about Naturalism, Conservationism, ReWilding Europe and other indigenous lands too. He has numerous other such songs that cover a wide variety of pressing issues. Everything from racially, ethnically, culturally, spiritually & territorially specific indigenous identity to genetic pollution, Nativism, Conservationism, Nationalism, Traditionalism, Localism to anti-globalization…etc. Drew takes great pleasure in butchering the sacred cows of modernities highly flawed belief systems and disassembling the fictions of our, presently, highly indoctrinated and controlled societies. As well as deconstructing the globalist deconstructionists & exposing the many forms of debt & usury & the deep social-engineering by the highly consolidated “mass-media” within our societies. He explains: “I write songs to expose as well as to reveal and to deconstruct the globalist deconstructionists. Drew ask this question over and over. Why should we live a controlled, generic, materialistic, consumeristic & wasteful existence? When we can live a self-controlled, authentic, creative, low-impact, traditional experience. That’s living, the other is just as I mentioned, only is an existence.”
Drew began writing poetry at age 5, he would often roam the forest on his families property writing in his small notebook he titled “My Thinking Spot”. He then started playing guitar and piano composing professionally at age 12. Drew says “My youth was blessed with the ability to enter into a deep and profound place of contemplation, reflection & interaction with the Natural world at a very young age. This blessing allowed me, once older, to pick the most effective direction to apply my Native European life force. I feel truly blessed and spared in so many ways.” Drew has numerous poems and short stories, his book “Native European Identity, Advocacy & Aesthetic” over a 150 original songs and has released six independent albums, so far: Rage, Flowers, Live From Bearsville studios, In My Movie, The Flesh and The Spirit… and Singing To The Choir. Drew now releases mostly singles, which can be downloaded, right here, off his website.
Drew usually performs solo or with many different arrangements of musicians and instrumentation. Thus, “The Gathering” is an ever changing blend of those musicians, other artists and supporters who come together at Drew’s performances to celebrate live, independent & original music. This provides for an exciting and ever evolving live show.
If you try to ask Drew about himself you will quickly realize that he starts to answer, but then moves rapidly onto a traditionalism, nativism, conservationism, Nationalism, Natural Order or government policy conversation. An interviewer recently called him on it and he replied: “Please, I began many years ago to exclude myself from this process. To limit, then evict and finally delete all that my ego had injected into it. Long ago I made the message, not the man, paramount. Truthfully I have chosen to privatize who I am, where I’m from and how I want others to see me… etc. I mean, I can tell you stories of my past, roots, heritage, Native European identity & culture & my racial, ethnic, cultural & spiritual make-up, childhood… etc, but I am a man of actions and this more authentic identity directs my actions. I have none of the usual “musician” addictions. No pathetic “rock star” sex, drugs and booze war stories. No sad tale of woe. I have no excuses and nothing to blame or be ashamed of. To the contrary, I feel spared, blessed, informed and I feel a deep responsibility to share with others what a life of resonance with the natural world & my ancestors has taught me. I have an urgency to express these lesson through writing, music, film, conscious communication/logos & conversation and the teaching and practicing of Native European Callisthenics & musical storytelling. I will never forget what I stand for, those I love and those who love me, but it has been a blessing emptying myself and, if only for a moment, becoming just a conduit for something greater to pass through. Truly, my personal story is a rather simple but exciting journey. Please let’s not waste time on personalities, we must focus on preserving & protecting all indigenous identities & create policies and daily actions to do so. We must dedicate our interaction here to addressing the serious issues that are negatively effecting the various peoples indigenous identities & our environment & Nations and try to ethically answer the numerous questions that are facing us. It’s up to us, at this time, to usher in a new understanding of our ancestors racially, ethnically, culturally, spiritually & territorially specific indigenous identity and heritage. Our ancestors, children, their children & future generations are depending on us.” As always, Drew, concluded the interview with “Love and Respect to you and yours.”
