Rome is an album likely to be stocked with folk or adult contemporary, just because store owners can't figure out where else to place it. Nancie de Ross could fit into either category, and many others, but none would quite fit her style. With a classical voice and minimalist instrumental backup, de Ross taps into a tradition of old folk, updated past the point of contemporary, and makes herself a balladeer.
The songs on Rome are perhaps not traditional subjects for ballads; drug addiction, abus