Rita Hosking heads for Plymouth

Some albums can take on a life of their own and become bigger than the sum of their parts. The music of Frankie and the No-­Go Road stands tall in Rita Hosking's impressive discography of well crafted, meaningful songs that convey her sincere voice and unique version of mountain soul. But dig deeper and her sixth studio album is a doorway to a realization of “more worlds than one” ­ a realm where unseen mysteries move with unstoppable fluidity and timeless grace.

Unlike her other records, the concept for Frankie and the No­-Go Road came to Rita while she was drawing. “I realized I was illustrating a hero’s journey, and that I would love to write a collection of songs inspired by those drawings.”

The theme was a natural for Rita. “In college, an Eastern Religions professor was drawing a dream I had on the board for the class, interpreting it as he went along. At one point, he called me ‘the hero’. I protested ­I certainly didn’t feel like one in the dream, or at all. He spun around, looked me square in the eye and said ‘we are all living our own hero’s journey.’ It was one of those pivotal moments where the human puzzle began to make a little bit of sense.”

On the surface, Frankie and the No­-Go Road is a superb collection of twelve West Coast Americana tunes, awash with soaring, heartfelt vocals, earthy banjo, folk-music authenticity, and the production sensibilities of a modern country record. On another level, it’s an intricate exploration of the soul's journey through life. Is the hero of this journey Frankie, or Rita herself, or the human heart in all of us? That's for the listener, or traveller, to decide.

Rita Hosking ·begins her UK tour on 19 November, and will be performing at The B-Bar in Plymouth on Tuesday 24 November. 

For more information visit www.ritahosking.com