Rose Nicholson

A character driven by wanderlust or the desire to explore.
Rose Nicholson was the child of a bar owner in the working class Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. She grew up hearing live music from the stage every Friday and Saturday night. Her fondest memories are of sitting on the polished oak bar, listening to the strumming of a guitar and letting a lyrical voice carry her away to a different world. Music is a kind of magic to Rose, and she has spent most of her life bewitched by it.
Her parents expected her to follow in her mother's footsteps, and get married to a nice local boy, and raise a couple of kids. As her teen years went on without Rose showing much interest in boys, her parents' expectations shifted to taking over her father's place running the bar. If she wasn't going to bear their grandchildren, perhaps she could become the same kind of local fixture her father had always been for their community. Either way, the Nicholson's visions of her future never extended beyond their blue-collar Midwestern neighborhood.
But Rose wanted to plot her own course in life. She worked on her vocal ability and songwriting skills in secret. When she was sixteen, she'd wheedled her way through a network of shady connections who knew her from the bar to finagle a spot singing backup in a local cover band. By the time her parents truly realized the extent of her dreams, Rose had moved from the back row to the front of the stage. Her charismatic presence, raw emotional delivery and imaginative original lyrics had created a local following that could no longer be hidden - and an ambition that could no longer be satisfied playing local shows.
Now, Rose and her band, Briar Rose & the Thorns, are traveling with the Sunshine River Music Fair throughout the summer of 1974. If they can earn enough during this summer, a promoter has offered to help fund a European tour. This is all the motivation Rose needed, as she longs to see the world.