- Roy Rogers Partners with a Different Kind of Harp Player
- Since the death of Norton Buffalo, Roy Rogers has repeatedly stated he will not collaborate with another harp player.
The slide guitarist with a blues bent is famous for his collaborations with different artists, most notably a longtime partnership with Buffalo, the harmonica superstar who died in 2009 from cancer. The East Bay natives were even closer as friends than they were as musical duo. Rogers with another harp player just wouldn’t be right.
So concertgoers usually are surprised to learn Rogers latest collaboration is with harp player Carlos Reyes. The aha moment occurs when Reyes brings his instrument onstage. This harp doesn’t fit in a pocket. [Read More...]
- Rogers blows the doors off Club Fox
- Bluesman Roy Rogers took the stage at Club Fox in Redwood City at 9:28 on Saturday night. He was in full black dress mode, complete with black vest and black hat, a tiny red feather resting on the side. He grabbed his slide guitar and commenced to strumming a casual warm-up, the crowd of about 130 waiting with anticipation.
In the crowd was Barbara Coffey, a resident of Salem, Ore., who has seen Rogers "30 times."
"I'm a huge Roy Rogers fan," Coffey said. "We've seen him in the Bay Area with Shana Morrison, with John Lee Hooker, or whatever."
By Rogers' second song, "Baby Please Don't Go," from "Blues on the Range," his audience was captivated. Rogers plays the slide as well as anyone in the world. And when he crouches, moving his left hand down the line of his guitar in a Cajun backbeat, one had best get out of his way.
*for full story click on San Jose Mercury News above.
- Transcendental Blues and the Girl with a Shoe: An Evening with Roy Rogers & Ray Manzarek.
- It had started raining by the time the house lights went down again, which only added to the intimacy of the room’s ambiance. So, on the evening of a full moon, one of the creators of my favorite Doors song, “Riders On The Storm,” would be taking the stage to the sound of rain.
After brief greetings to the audience, Rogers picked up his guitar and Manzarek took a seat behind his keyboard. There was no hesitation about getting straight to it, and they launched the perfect song to kick things off, “Presidential Boogie.”
Manzarek then conjured up an impromptu “Sacramento Blues,” singing lyrics he most likely made up as he went. It made for a great ice-breaker with the audience as he took a poke at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and sang about budget woes.
While Rogers changed guitars, opting for his double-necked monster, Manzarek continued with a beautifully light, jazzy piece he dedicated to Gil Evans, who worked closely with Miles Davis at one time.
The mood was light, and the music was crisp and full of purpose. Even though I’ve seen him a few times, Rogers’ speed and style left my mouth hanging open. He worked one end of the guitar while notes he’d just played sustained themselves forever. He successfully filled pockets between notes, creating floating transitions where, only seconds earlier, there was nothing but piano. It was almost as if there were three or four musicians instead of two.
The room maintained a hypnotic silence until Manzarek snapped everybody out of it by suddenly injecting a riff from “Light My Fire.”
“Well, I know you must have some questions,” he said. “I think I see a microphone over there so, let’s go.” [Read More...]
- Jazz Fest on The Upswing
- NEW ORLEANS — Veterans, lathered in SPF 30, clutching a daily lineup with scribbled priorities and lugging nothing heavier than a folding camp chair, can always spot the newbies. They're the ones with sunburned limbs, stiff footwear and iPods. The common ground? Mile-wide smiles, ringing eardrums and grease-stained T-shirts.
Slide guitar ace Roy Rogers wowed a packed house in the blues tent with new Little Queen Bee and Calm Before the Storm (sung by son Sam), a sizzling version of Robert Johnson's Terraplane Blues and rousing tunes with pianist Marcia Ball.
[Read More...]
- Blues Revue Magazine recently reviewed Roy's show at The Triple Door in Seattle, WA.
"Like his music,
[Read More...]
Rogers' storytelling is crisp, entertaining, and all of a piece. Still, his powers of
expression are strongest in his hands, and he proved throughout the two sets that it's
possible to be simultaneously flashy and genuine. His low-key showmanship highlighted
dazzling technical prowess but also made it accessible."
- Roy at Tampa Bay Blues Festival
"Can
the day get any better! Well yes it can and Roy Rogers proved it. Guitar Player magazine
said, "That's not a slide on Roy Rogers pinky, it's a time machine. With it Rogers
transports you to the Mississippi Delta's past and future." No matter if he picks up his
Martin 016 New Yorker six string or the Gibson 12 string Dobro made in the mid-'60's,
Rogers has no equal. Slide music just can't get any better or cleaner. Rogers was the only
act of the festival that I sat down and watched the entire performance."
