Folk music with a foreign feel

Musician Chris Rosser had somewhat of an unusual upbringing in Charlotte, N.C., which led to his somewhat usual brand of folk music that will be heard when he plays Tunes at Twilight tonight and an Underberg house concert Saturday.

Rosser was raised as a member of the Bahai Faith, an independent religion that promotes a global society and that expouses that humanity is linked together with a common destiny.

The Bahai Faith is of Persian origins and Rosser said that he grew up near a number of Persian Bahais and people from the Middle East.

With this Eastern-influenced background, it is not too surprising that Rosser started to become interested in Indian music while a high school student. While fellow high school students were listening to rock, rap or pop music, Rosser was listening to the Indian group Shakti, which featured English jazz guitarist John McLaughlin.

While he was listening to Eastern-influenced music during high school, Rosser was performing in the school choir and in various garage bands that played rock and pop music.

"I was always secretly writing songs on the side too," Rosser said.

While attending the University of Miami, Rosser studied jazz piano and studio engineering. It was not until Rosser's brother sent him some albums by artists like David Wilcox and Nanci Griffith that he became aware of contemporary folk music.

"I kind of found my home when I heard that music," Rosser said. "In some ways it was similar to the songs I was writing on my own, but that I wasn't doing anything with because they weren't songs that were played on top 40 radio or on MTV."

After graduating from college in 1993, Rosser worked at a recording studio in Charlotte, N.C., for two years before deciding to make a leap into being a full-time musician and moved to Asheville, N.C., where he currently resides.

"I had an intuitive sense that Asheville was where I needed to be," he said. "There are an awful lot of touring singer-songwriters who live here and the whole town has an artsy, college vibe to it."

Rosser released his debut album "Face the East" in 1995, followed by the albums "Archaeology" and "The Holy Fool," which features Indian string instruments the dotar and the sarod. In 1998, Rosser studied with Indian sarod master Ali Akbar Khan in San Francisco.

While touring, Rosser brings the dotar with him, as well as a digital piano.

His touring schedule is not as full as it use to be, since Rosser became a father two years ago.

"I try not to be gone more than two days at a time," he said.

Performing live is still important to Rosser though, even if he does not have as much time to do it. "It's easy in the studio to loose your focus," he said. The goal of songwriting is to communicate with people and performing live reminds you of that communication, he said.

Rosser spends a good deal of time at his home studio working as producer for other musicians' albums. He said he has probably worked on 30 or 35 albums in his studio since he started producing in 1997.

"Right now the hardest thing is not getting too booked in the studio. My project keeps getting put off since I keep working on other peoples' projects," he said. "I realized I would have to book time for myself."

The project Rosser keeps having put off is his follow-up album to "The Holy Fool," which was released in 2000. Rosser said he has a good number of songs already recorded and is hoping to release the album by the end of this year.

Audiences at his live performances can expect to hear some of his new material, Rosser said, material that features his piano playing.

Although Rosser's mother was a piano teacher and he started taking lessons when he was 7 years old and went on to study jazz piano in college, after graduating from college Rosser started playing the guitar and the piano went by the wayside.

"It felt like since I never studied guitar with anyone, I developed a style of my own," he said.

Audiences can also expect to hear some lighter material that Rosser only performs at live shows. "I mix in some funny songs so people don't get bored," he said.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182