What's in a name?

He was a graduate of the Air Force Academy who rose to the rank of Colonel. He was husband to Joan and a father of three. He was a world traveler and a pilot who flew in the Cuban Missile Crisis. His name was John Rosanbalm. Call sign: Rosey. His son Michael, my dad, also graduated from the Academy, eventually becoming Lt. Colonel Rosanbalm and the second Rosey.

When I started a band in 2011, I wanted the name to reflect the type of music we played. I wanted to avoid any confusion caused by my first name (anything for Selenas!). I wanted to avoid the inevitable misspellings of both my first and last names. So I borrowed the family nickname, changed the spelling, added a country cliche, and Rosie and the Ramblers were born.

The new name came with its own confusions. People couldn’t remember the second half of the band’s name: Rosie and the Riveters? Rosie and the Rustlers? Rosie and the Wranglers? A few years passed, we built a solid following, and the name began to feel strange to me. It was cumbersome to say and hard to explain.

Now for some history: I got my musical start performing in choir. I have a Bachelor of Music in Musical Theatre. The reason I walked away from theatre was because I was tired of being at the mercy of theatre companies and casting directors and the shows themselves. Musicals call for specific types and have small casts. Opportunities are limited, especially in any town without a really big scene. I resolved to create my own performance destiny (that’s dramatic, but I think you get my meaning).

That’s why I started a band. To have control over my creative life. But after a few years, I realized I had created another character for myself. I felt increasingly stifled by the name Rosie and the Ramblers and what a band with that kind of name should be. I fell into a pattern of writing what I thought the dancers wanted, writing what I thought a country band “should” sound like.

In recent months, I’ve been writing in a different style, and when I made the decision to perform and record these songs, I came to an impasse. I didn’t want to perform them under the RATR name, the sound was too different. So the question became whether or not to have two separate projects.

The answer? Drop the band name. All of the songs I’ve written are a part of me: they’ve served a purpose, they tell a story, in the same way my tattoos do. Instead of compartmentalizing, I’m integrating.

And if y’all can learn how to spell Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey, you can learn how to spell Selena Rosanbalm.