Sweetbriar Rose is a band of rootsy, thorny, rose-hipped gypsies who you’re equally likely to glimpse running in full sun, barefoot on a field of bluegrass, brooding in three-part harmony over a murder ballad in a shady grove, or channeling the spirit of a 1940’s Balkan jazz joint. If you heard them through the wall, you might imagine a stray melody from the carnival caravan was whirling and beckoning just on the other side of the darkened woods. The Philadelphia City Paper described their debut album Cultivar as, "impressive and spooky," calling out songwriter Heather Shayne Blakeslee as a "towering talent" who's "luxuriously husky and sexy voice" was combined with "smart, bookish lyrics."