Dawn Rose was born in San Francisco and grew up in Belmont, a small town on the San Francisco Peninsula.
Dawn has been playing guitar, piano and singing constantly since she was a child, while studying voice and piano. Toward the end of high school she began writing songs, and started performing acoustic-rock in a duo, “August” which eventually grew into a country-rock band called “The Swindlers.” She moved to the mountain enclave of La Honda in 1983, where she lived for many years, playing with “The Swindlers” and doing solo performances. Later she joined an African band “Bole’ Bantu” as a dancer and back-up vocalist. She put together a new rock and roll band called “Dawn and the Debs” and continued playing in the rustic bars and restaurants along the redwood forested ridge, in Woodside and along the coastline.
After marrying in 1991, she moved to the Napa Valley where she continued to write and perform while raising two children. She made her first solo album in 2000, called “These Days,” available on cdbaby.com.
Eventually a new trio emerged, called “Sweet Burgundy” (named after a Tommy Bolin song - fitting for the wine country.) With partners Kathleen Potthoff and Lynda Amen, these three blue-eyed blonds perform 30 plus shows a year, mostly in the Napa Valley; however in 2008 they traveled to play in the Cayman Islands. To date they have two albums - “Sweet Burgundy” and “The Second Glass.”
In May of 2007, Dawn hired Mill Valley producer, Tom Corwin (Bonnie Raitt, Patti Labelle. Booker T. and Stevie Wonder,) and began co-writing and recording a new solo album. Using fantastic Bay Area musicians: Tom Corwin on bass and vocals, Gawain Mathews on guitars, John R. Burr on keyboards, and David Tucker on Drums, Dawn and Tom have created an exciting and original pop-rock album, released March 26th, 2010.
A new Napa Valley band has emerged from this project, the “Dawn Rose Band,” with Jeff Weinman on drums, Mark Larson on guitar, Alan Parks on bass, and Rick Roth on keyboards.