Benefit to honor legacy of musician, writer

Carol Rose said that from the time her brother, Forrest, began writing his newspaper columns in the mid-1980s, their parents collected them.

“It’s really extraordinary,” Carol Rose said. “You can actually hear his voice when you read his columns.”

Forrest Rose was one of those people you describe as one of a kind. With his deft handling of words, knowing touch on the string bass and throaty voice at the mic, Rose left a lasting mark on Columbia and among his farther-flung comrades in music.

On Thursday night, friends and loved ones from across the country will gather at Mojo’s to remember Rose, who died in March 2005 at age 48 while he was on tour with a band. The party, to which the public is invited, will unveil a selection of his columns and an accompanying compact disc, collectively called “Forrest Rose: A Life in Words and Music.”

Earl and Marilyn Rose, as well as the rest of the family, had encouraged their son to compile and publish his articles for years, but, as Carol said, he was busy living in the present. After Forrest’s death, the family wanted to create a memorial to his life and thought publishing a collection of his writings a fitting tribute. Carol, who lives in Massachusetts, put the columns her parents had saved into a series of photocopied notebooks and began reading.

The process was emotional for Carol, who said she sometimes read while on her commute to work in Boston.

“The fact that I would laugh through my tears is because I was missing him,” she said, “but also because he was dealing with difficult issues.”

Carol looked for columns that had a timeless quality. The result is 73 stories, divided among chapters such as “On Freedom and Civil Liberties,” “Notes on Music and Society” and “About Town,” which focuses on happenings in Columbia.

The words illuminate the big personality Columbia came to know for his wry humor and unique take on things.

“Besides,” Rose wrote in an article about flag-burning, “you’d think that if Congress were all that concerned about flag burning, it could require all flag manufacturers to use only nonflammable material. But that would be deemed an unreasonable infringement on the manufacturers’ right to turn a maximum profit. There are places where even Congress has to draw a line.”

The photograph on the cover of the new book, shot by Jim Curley, a friend of Rose’s and the photographer for many of Rose’s early articles in the Columbia Daily Tribune, captures the man mugging for the moment. A cigarette jutting from his lips and a press pass tucked into the fold of his fedora, Rose had just been assigned to the “Cop Shop,” or police beat, at the Tribune and is “playing the hardened beat reporter,” Curley recalled.

Rose’s passion: music

The idea to include a compilation CD with the book came from Bernadette Dryden, Rose’s sweetheart.

“At first, we were going to do just the book,” Dryden said, “and I really pushed for the CD. That was really his passion in life — music.”

John Stewart of Seattle assisted in choosing the songs. Stewart and Rose played music together in Columbia in the 1970s and 1980s with numerous groups including the “New Moon Serenaders,” Stewart said.

The CD has 21 tracks and 15 bands; Rose performs on all but one of them, playing stand-up bass, singing or both.

Although the CD features bluegrass music, fellow musician and friend David Pruitt said Rose took a nondiscriminatory attitude toward music.

“It could be any style of music, as long as it was a song that we liked,” Pruitt said. “It could be Hawaiian, Cajun, blues, ’20s. But if it was a song that we liked, we liked to put our own twist on it.”

The first track, a Lee Ruth song called “Public Domain,” features Rose singing lead with the Rank Sinatras. Many remember Rose as an energetic and humorous stage presence.

“He was always aware of where the attention of the listeners were,” said Pruitt. “Always focused on grabbing people’s attention and giving ’em an emotional charge.”

Richard King, owner of The Blue Note, remembers Rose for his uncanny ability to make a joke that would broadside half the audience and set the other half rolling with laughter.

The final track, “The Forrest Rose,” was written by Vince Corkery, a St. Louis musician and friend of Rose. The gentle waltz features fiddle, Dobro and guitar. Corkery said he wrote the tune last spring then, recalling that Rose liked waltzes, dedicated it to him.

A bluegrass benefit

Mojo’s, a music bar on Park Avenue, was deemed ideal by King for a benefit bluegrass concert featuring the Stringtown Stringband. The genre, which tends to draw smaller groups of dedicated fans, fills a smaller venue with warmth.

“Before Forrest passed away, he had a bluegrass thing going,” King said. “The perfect place for them to play was at Mojo’s, where the bluegrass would fit.”

Besides, Rose fondly remembered Mojo’s under the pseudonym he had given it.

“Forrest said I should rename Mojo’s and that he had the perfect name,” King said. Drawing from the exaggerated rectangular shape of Mojo’s, Rose came up with “The Double Wide.”

Several members of the Stringtown Stringband played with Rose at one time or another, and Rose wrote the liner notes for one of their CDs, said another longtime Rose friend, Karen Grindler, the founder and director of the Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center. Money raised from the concert sales will go toward scholarships for the riding center, which gives disabled children the opportunity to ride horses.

“He has always been a kind person who liked helping other people,” Grindler said, “especially people who never had as many opportunities as others. He liked to help the underdog.”

Rose was involved in the program since its inception, performing for benefits, giving money and helping write letters and press releases on behalf of the center.

“For 20 years, Forrest Rose was the ghostwriter for Cedar Creek,” Grindler said. “In 20 years, he never turned me down.”

Grindler is quick to add, though, that as much as the party will be a benefit concert, it is meant to gather Rose’s friends — from the many realms he touched — for one evening to appreciate bluegrass.

“You have maybe a handful or two handfuls of close friends,” said Curley, the friend and photographer. “There are 50 or more, maybe a hundred people in Columbia who counted Forrest as one of those five or 10 close friends. When you were with him, you were the most important person to be with at that time.”