For the past seven weeks, English singer-songwriter Lucy Rose has been travelling all over South America, with a short trip to Mexico to conclude, visiting fans who have invited her to come to their hometowns. Completely out of her own pocket, with only her husband Will Morris (the brother of fellow artist Rae Morris) to help guide her through her shows, Rose has put complete faith into her Spanish-speaking fans to find her a venue, provide her with accommodation, and show her the beauty of this vibrant and culturally rich continent. After over 60 shows, Lucy Rose is now concluding her fan-led tour in Mexico, which started off in the country’s capital, and arrived in Puebla on 16th May.
After a wander around the city’s historic centre, Rose strolled into Profética Casa de la Cultura, into the sepia-toned courtyard heading straight onto her mini stage, plucking a few strings and beginning with ‘My Life’ from her sophomore album Work It Out. With just her guitar and a mic, Rose’s vocals resonate around the venue confirming and highlighting her perfect tone and range, even as she sings the backing vocals of the track that are originally sung by friend and sister-in-law Rae Morris.
After a short but sweet introduction in Spanish, thanking her audience for coming, Rose took requests from her attentive fans sat cross-legged around her stage. It was clear from her predominantly Mexican audience that they were hugely familiar with her early material from first album Like I Used To, which spawned the likes of ‘Gamble’ and ‘Middle of the Bed’, both of which she went on to perform. Just a few seconds into ‘Gamble’, Rose stopped abruptly to announce “I think I’ve been bitten!”, leading to a couple of anecdotes about her time in Mexico, visiting the sights with her fans and hosts.
Being Rose’s first ever single, ‘Middle of the Bed’ was widely known as fans sang along with her. It’s a real delight for Rose that her fans, not all English-speaking, sing her lyrics back to her, and you could see from her expressions that she was taken aback with gratitude.
After a few of her older tracks, and the bouncy and catchy ‘Like an Arrow’ from Work It Out, an audience member requested ‘Nebraska’, a piano-led track from her latest album. With only her guitar she unfortunately couldn’t perform the song but said “I could sing the chorus but it’d be embarrassing”. With the number of Mexican fans and new friends sitting around her, she clearly felt comfortable as she headed straight into an acapella version of the chorus, further illustrating her confident and faultless vocals.
Rose closed her hour-long set with two singles from her first record, ‘Place’ and the upbeat ‘Bikes’, receiving a huge applause from the small-capacity venue. With her humility and gratitude, it was undoubtable that Rose simply stepped off of her stage and invited people to come and introduce themselves and have a little chat.
Before she closed she took the time to thank the group she met in Mexico City just the day before who came to Puebla to see her again, her Pueblan hosts, and the whole venue for showing their support. For an artist like Rose who isn’t “mainstream or commercial”, a fan-organised tour like this just goes to show how important music is to people and how it can travel. “Thank you for looking for me, for finding me. I don’t know how you did it, but thanks.” Through the wanders of Spotify and Facebook, fans all over the world have found Rose’s talent and beauty as an artist and she thanks her Mexican fans for caring so much about music, that they discovered her albums and allowed her to visit their hometowns and do what she is so clearly passionate about: playing music for true fans.
