Nola Rose & the Thorns

Say goodbye to Beantown, Nola heads to Music City USA (Dec 1998)

Nola Rose Sheppard has been a mainstay of the Boston country music scene for five years as the leader of Nola Rose & The Thorns. She went to Nashville for six months earlier this year to check out the musical scenery. Where else in the world are there 35 clubs featuring live, predominantly country, music? You know it. Music City USA, Nashville Tenn. If I took away nothing else from my time in Nashville, it was experiencing first hand the amount of talent living and working there.  ...

Nola Rose & The Thorns quickly forge ahead (Sep 1995)

Nola Rose Shepherd likes her traditional country music just fine. And while Nola Rose & The Thorns will perform covers of other artists in the clubs, they do set limits. People will approach the Boston-based band with requests. Not all of them get met. "It can be unsettling," Shepherd said. "People come up, 'Do you know 'Trashy Women?' No. I don't know all the words." And that may typify the battle that Rose & The Thorns, a band getting acclaim, has to face.While those attending the clubs may want to hear the tried and true familiar hits they hear on the radio, that's not what a lot of the bands out there are all about.  ...