Meet Ross

Ross is a singer, songwriter, and finger-style guitarist, performing in the Rochester, New York area. His finger-style guitar combines the percussive, gutbucket feel inspired by the Delta Blues songsters with a lush, jazzy harmony.

His repertoire is rooted in the Tin Pan Alley / Great American Songbook collection of standards, and older acoustic blues, with classic 60’s and 70’s rock, 80’s new wave, his own songs, and solo arrangements of classical and popular music. Influences include Tom Waits, Michael Peter Smith, Leon Redbone, Fats Waller, Joe Pass, Robert Johnson, and Blind Willie McTell.

Ross plays in a freewheeling, one-man-band style. His own songs cover a wide variety of vibes from silly and upbeat to melodramatic to serious, usually taking a bemused look at the missteps of their broken and befuddled narrators. His attitude is one of perseverance and hope. His entries have been selected for performance at “If All Rochester Wrote The Same Song” for the past two years. Frank De Blase described his take on the theme “No One Will Ever Know” as “heartbreakingly gorgeous. We’re talking goosebump territory here.”

He’s performed in bands in the Rochester area since the late 90’s, though mainly as an acoustic and electric bassist and vocalist. Previous projects have included The Tabletop Three, Jerry Falzone’s Liars Moon, The 3-D Electric Blues Band, and W. B. Blues.