27 Mar 03 - 07:02 PM (#920084) Subject: Garnet Rogers Article: A Man & His GAS From: Clinton Hammond From the Kalamazoo Gazette http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/kzgazette/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/features-0/1048263694243290.xml Folk rocker Rogers returns to his 'spiritual home' Friday, March 21, 2003 BY ELIZABETH CLARK SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE While most can't imagine Portage as a place of pilgrimage, Kalamazoo is truly a mecca to folk rocker Garnet Rogers. Most performers manage to squeeze in a reference to Paw Paw or Schoolcraft to personalize their sets, but it's a safe bet for most the city catchphrase "Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo" really comes as news. Not so for Ontario-based Rogers. Rogers said he scores a fix for his addiction every time he comes to Kalamazoo. He's developed a doozy of a habit after more than 30 years on the road, both touring with late brother Stan Rogers and going it alone since his brother's death in 1983. Rogers' drug of choice: Gibson guitars. "Kalamazoo's my spiritual home because I'm a completely nuts about Gibson guitars," Rogers said. "I know a guy, he used to work at the Gibson plant and he lives outside of town -- he actually made a guitar for me that's my main stage guitar now." The singer-songwriter's stash of Gibsons includes 30 models from 1927 to 1968. "I kind of have these lurid fantasies about these instruments that must be in private homes in the area and an itch to get on them," he said. He calls some models "holy grails" of guitars. He has some and uses them in the studio but said they're too delicate to take on the road. "God help me, I bought one yesterday," he said. "I had to go in and take a big breath -- a 1968 Gibson Les Paul. It cost more money than my parents made in one year in their entire career." Flipping through buy-and-sell papers and hunting for gems at junk shops fills his free time on the road. He's not unlike a grown-up who still collects "Star Wars" statuettes. Music has always been his passion and past-time since he and brother Stan grew up playing guitars, so it came as no surprise when Rogers came home and dumped his books and packed up his knapsack the day he finished high school. "I went up to where he (Stan) and his little band were playing and that was it. I was in the band. ...I think that was always the plan that we were going to play together." Losing his brother, best friend and band mate all at once bewildered the singer on every level of his life. "It's coming up on 20 years now and I'm still coming up on ways it effects me. He always took care of me. Things such as how to get to the damn shows. I'd been to the gig before and I just didn't know how to get there. "The worst part was dealing with a very private grief in a very public way," he said. "I'd show up to shows where people who had come to see us play as a band. Emotions would run pretty high in the room. I was trying to not make it an evening of dirges. I wanted to play a show that people would enjoy, and I wasn't feeling that chipper." With a baritone like a Redwood trunk you couldn't dream of wrapping your arms around, Rogers comforting voice imparts a contentedness to even his more mournful numbers. His recent best-of CD "All That Is" reveals a range from what he calls the "breathless place" of soft tones to music so "jagged" it makes people want to throw things. "I'm sort of bouncing around from those extremes, and, luckily, I stay closer to the middle." |
27 Mar 03 - 07:59 PM (#920111) Subject: RE: Garnet Rogers Article: A Man & His GAS From: Charley Noble Thanks for posting this. Charley Noble |
27 Mar 03 - 08:13 PM (#920118) Subject: RE: Garnet Rogers Article: A Man & His GAS From: breezy Tomorrow -tonight Marilyn Middleton will feature some of Stan's songs when she performs in St Albans, England. She is a well respected interpreter of his songs and did much to draw our attention to his work. And so we are with Garnet. Thats 'All There is' to say. Thank God for cars that break down . |
27 Mar 03 - 08:38 PM (#920137) Subject: RE: Garnet Rogers Article: A Man & His GAS From: Sorcha Gas? How badly do they smell?? (grin) |
27 Mar 03 - 09:59 PM (#920186) Subject: RE: Garnet Rogers Article: A Man & His GAS From: Cluin I love the sound of an old Gibson too. (I always preferred them to the much-touted Martins). But I know for a fact that Garnet has a couple of custom made Laskins. Christ, Garnet, leave a few for the rest of us! ;) |