Bio
Linda Romano
Vocals, Keyboards, Songwriter, Arranger
“When you share your gift, it is a gift to us all” - Linda Romano
With the debut album by September's Rose, What the Heart Confides, singer-songwriter, Linda Romano fuses her love of rock music with spiritual healing. A lover of rock music since early childhood, she often raided her stepfather’s vinyl collection, endlessly playing the rock giants of the past - The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Fleetwood Mac and Tina Turner to name a few -and dreaming of becoming a performer herself. This passion for music led her to singing in several local original and cover bands, studying and performing opera professionally and ultimately to a long-term career in music education, teaching children the joys of music.
In recent years, this spiritual side made a greater claim upon her, becoming the stimulus for this collection of songs. Linda found her voice fusing her love of mysticism and rock music. During a mediation, Linda began to hear the words, “When the two worlds collide, you’ll know in a heartbeat.” Realizing that something special was happening, she swiftly grabbed her phone and began writing what she heard. Along with her husband Gregg, who assisted with the musical arrangements, they put together this collection of songs that highlight their search for spiritual contentment and cosmic truths.
Gregg Romano
Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Songwriter, Arranger
Where do ideas come from? For Gregg Romano, they exist in a mysterious ether waiting to be expressed. Like many musicians, he knows that the mind is like a radio that receives inspiration from an unknown source, and when you get that idea, you feverishly pick up your instrument, or hum into a phone to capture it before it disappears.
In the new album, What the Heart Confides – composed with his wife Linda – he has used this inspiration to create a group of songs that draw as much musical influence from this mysterious ether as they do from his musical heroes.
Ask Gregg what he remembers most growing up and he will tell you it was the constancy of music in his life, from his mother singing while making Sunday breakfast to his father’s eclectic record collection of Big Band, Bluegrass, and Country. His fondest memories were of listening to pop-rock bands like the Beatles, Beach Boys and the Dave Clark Five, and later to more guitar-focused musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter.
At thirteen, Gregg learned to play the electric guitar and would sit for hours trying to figure out Clapton’s guitar parts from Cream and Derek and the Dominoes albums. A later fascination with pre-war blues also led him to explore slide guitar and fingerstyle blues of other guitar greats like Charlie Patton, Blind Willie Johnson and Tampa Red. At one point, he joined the rock band, Pirate, founded by Barry Ambrosio. As Barry was the road manager for the rock band Rainbow at the time, Gregg got to play with Ritchie Blackmore, Joe Lynn Turner and Bobby Rondinelli on several occasions.
Interested in understanding music theoretically, and of jazz in particular, Gregg studied music at a local college. From there, he became a member of the jazz fusion band Innervision, which recorded one CD, Tropico, on the Cat's Paw label. The band also opened for American Music Awards-winning R&B artist, Angela Bofill. Currently, he works as a music educator and jazz musician.