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Rita sings original mountain roots music --soulful ballads and old time drive-- with a voice that evokes awe towards the power of people and place. And it is that voice that really grabs your attention - a kind of cross between the haunting delivery of Gillian Welch and the richness of Iris Dement. Then there are the songs, wow, can this girl write. Altogether, Rita is a talent that you just don't come across every day.

STOP PRESS 'Come Sunrise' CD is on the selection ballot for a Grammy Award

Kitchen tables, springs, loss, miners, mountains, culture clash, trailers, stray dogs, loggers, hope, forest fires - Rita Hosking's country-folk music is this and more, and always fierce and lovely. Her delivery is, to put it simply, intense.

That voice, called a "soulful howl from the mountains" (California Bluegrass Association) is calling attention around the country---"What? California girls don't sing like that!!?" But Rita will tell you about her upbringing in rural Shasta County, and the old-time band of seasoned mountain characters that took her under their wings. This California girl comes by her mountain-music sensibility with true authenticity, with original songs deeply rooted in her family's frontier experience. A descendant of Cornish miners who sang in the mines, Rita grew up with deep regard for folk music and the power of the voice.

Rita's songs have been lauded for story and sense of place, and her performances praised for capturing the audience. Honours include winner of the '08 Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest at the Sisters Folk Festival and finalist for the '09 Telluride Troubadour Contest. She has played her songs for appreciative listeners at the Strawberry Music Festival, Kate Wolf Music Festival, and many more. Rita points out that she likes to "get to the heart of the matter." As with a mystic, this means a loaded and stunning, yet gentle and compassionate delivery. As Craven adds, "Rita's messages are immediate yet patient and her quiet conviction most strong."

Come Sunrise, a collection of 11 original songs and Rita's third album, was released in June of 2009. Recorded in Austin, Texas with producer and guitarist Rich Brotherton (Robert Earl Keen, Caroline Herring,) Come Sunrise launches Rita onto the national Americana scene with players such as Brotherton himself, Lloyd Maines, Warren Hood, Glenn Fukunaga, and many more. In addition to her 2007 'Silver Stream' and 2005 'Are You Ready' featuring members of her band "Cousin Jack," Come Sunrise completes a collection of well received recordings. It entered the US Folk chart top 20 in May and was still there 4 months later, having received the kind of reviews normally reserved for folk music's top echelon.

"From the first time I heard Rita sing, her voice gripped me and did not let go; a voice whose beauty speaks from a deep place of honest and raw and powerful emotion." Joe Craven

"Rita Hosking has one of those perfectly imperfect voices necessary to do folk music right. Hosking keeps it beautifully raw and real in the pitchy tradition of Emmylou Harris or Lucinda Williams. Musically, her bluegrass-tinged performances hearken back to the best of American music without mimicking the greats." The Eugene Weekly

"What I appreciate about Rita's music is that she has the innate ability to take the listener back to a simpler and better time in American music." Cool As Folk KDVS host Michael Leahy

"With Come Sunrise Hosking gives us a prism that isolates the distinct historic threads of country and folk music and then combines it again into a wholly satisfying and extraordinary body of work." Twang Nation

"Rita Hosking has one of those voices that just seems to get directly at both the heart of the song and of the listener. Her vocals don't so much command attention as they just invite you in with such warmth and sincerity as to make assent seem like the most natural thing to do." Outskirts of Country

"When I was growing up, people used to say Hank Williams had the high lonesome. I took that to mean that when he sang certain songs, he had a way of echoing the lone coyote on a full moon night. I've heard only a few besides Williams who had it, most notably Steve Young, who can squeeze a gleeful heart dry with his mournful wail. And Rita Hosking... She tells stories and paints pictures faultlessly. In fact, I'd lay down a good bet that if she'd written this review, it would have said much more in a much better way. I know I could never sing like her, but I wish to God I could write like her. It would make it a hell of a lot easier. For you and for me." Rock & Reprise

"The first thing that hits you with this disc is the strength and power of Rita Hosking's voice, and the fierce passion it contains. The soulful lonesomeness of mountains and a yearning come through in these songs." Bob Gottlieb, Folk and Acoustic Music