Artist Profile by Polly Pruneau

 

“Another rich man’s war, another poor man’s fight… you don’t speak for me.” Garnet Rogers and his band lunge into this political song opening the new live performance CD “Get a Witness.” It is a song in which Garnet uses the first person to voice his views.

“I never even thought about it, that it’s actually me talking. I just started jotting down ideas one day. I was really angry and once I got two or three thoughts to string together and rhyme, I kept going.”

He didn’t know what to do with this song, “Junior”, so he just “threw it out to the audience one night” and got a positive reaction. He doesn’t perform the song on a regular basis, “Americans might resent a Canadian passing judgment.”  But he’s glad he chose it for the CD. “I’m so proud of the band and how they played that song. It’s a strong performance,” he said

“Junior” is a departure from the third person that Garnet usually uses to voice his ideas, like the woman in “Election Night”, whose husband has died and her family’s life decimated by the healthcare costs, or Charlie, who sets his home on fire in “Blue Smoke”, rather than have the bank repossess it.

“Election Night” was a real person and the plot of the song pretty much evolved as it really happened,” Garnet said. While he did interject his own opinion as the song progressed, he was so mad when the incident occurred that he couldn’t write about it until years later. “It’s one of those things that always kind of haunted me. It’s appalling. People are still squabbling about the cost of health care today. Pharmaceutical companies have the final word. The common people don’t get listened to.”

Audiences throughout North America have been tuning in to Garnet since the 1970s when he and his older brother, Stan Rogers, played together. The music was popular, but no major label was interested. So in 1977, he and his brother went independent, and “we put our album together ourselves. A guy put up some money, my mother distributed it. All the years Stan and I were making records, it was a family-run business. (Stan died in a plane crash in 1983.) Now the music and label, Snow Goose Songs, “supports what I’m doing; it pays for itself.”

 

Over the years, he has been approached by a couple of big music industry   representatives, and he told them, thanks, but no offense, no. One fellow told him he had never met anyone who didn’t even want to hear the pitch. He told the representative that he works with his family, his mother, and his wife, and he always knows that the people he works with care for him and love him; he can trust them.  “I asked him ‘Do you guys think you could love me?’ and he said ‘I don’t know’.”  Would a music industry contract bring Garnet more fame? “Fame never appealed to me. I have no goals like playing Carnegie Hall or winning a Grammy.  That stuff would mean that what I was doing was dependent on someone else grading my paper - making a decision on whether what I do has value. I know it’s valuable to me. That’s enough.”

Perhaps one of Garnet’s best known songs is “Night Drive”, an evocative piece about memories of his brother. He says when he performs it, “Oh, I go away; I’m in a trace state. I’m younger, in a blue van with my brother beside me.  Onstage, I have my ear cocked toward the amplifiers, I’m in sensory overload. The amplifiers are the old tube ones, so I can even smell the tubes and it takes me back. The performance we did of that song on “Get a Witness” works on a number of levels. The drummer (Cheryl Reid)- it was a really big deal for her to be on the CD. She is a huge fan, met my brother when she was 8, and now, years later, she played for me, and did a great job. David Woodhead, who plays bass, was the first bass player my brother and I ever played with.   People were coming on and off the stage, tuning instruments, no one missed a note. I was totally in the moment, I think everyone else was too. There’s no editing at all on the last half hour of the CD; that’s the way we played it. I think with “Night Drive” it really did work. I’m dumbfounded that it did. There’s a huge amount of tension that builds and builds, then slows down and then ends with a powerful rendition of “Northwest Passage.” (Stan’s song) He’s still an influence on me.”

Other musicians who influence Garnet are “people who got me when I was young and still grab my attention today, Van Morrison, Greg Brown, Richard Shindell.

Bob Dylan-the kind of stuff he’s doing now-he’s taking enormous chances.   And Bruce Springsteen made a CD for hardcore fans – “Devils and Dust”.  It’s not the Bruce Springsteen that everyone knows. I admire people who push the envelope -  It’s a fine line between having a personal style and saying the same thing over and over again. I find a new way to do it as much as I can.”  For his most recent studio release, “Shining Thing”, Garnet did the all string tracks by himself. “It was insane work, but it was more satisfying to play all the strings myself. When it was done I was exhausted; I was almost in a coma, but I’m really proud of it. “Shining Thing” was a break through for me, life and death and everything in between. More than a year later I’m just starting to write again.” 

When Garnet composes he uses a lot of reverent references to the natural world. He says he has always lived in very rural areas. “My wife and I live on a dirt road in a river valley, with wildlife, deer, turkeys, coyotes, all over the place. My aunt got me into bird-watching at a young age. It’s something that just gets into my writing on some level; I connect on that level. It’s even what I remember most on my travels.”

“That redwing is one happy boy. Just listen to him sing. Just listen to him sing.” –From “Redwing” on Garnet Roger’s “Firefly” CD.

Garnet Rogers is performing at One Longfellow Square in Portland on Saturday, March 29, at 8:00 PM!

Polly Pruneau