A “Driving” Night of Music with Garnet Rogers
 by Cliff Garber  ·  9 March 2007

Let me just start out by saying though I’ve been listening to Garnet Rogers for many years, I have only seen him a few times “at a distance” at larger folk venues and concerts, and what I might consider up slightly closer only once with Greg Brown at the Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Warwick, Rhode Island. That made last week’s ME AND THEE show with him all the more special and exciting for me as a fan.

The evening opened with a really sweet and endearing performer named Bernice Lewis, whom I mistakenly, OOPS!, called Barbara (of “Make Me Your Baby” fame) Lewis. Bernice’s soft, gentle and laid-back stage persona was a warm and welcoming opening on that bitter cold, windy night that followed the day-long storm.

Her stories and songs were simple and homespun, based on her own life’s experiences, such as “When It Stops Raining” that tells of all the things she plans to do in life as soon as it stops raining. Isn’t that so true of many of us who were in the audience? “Atkins Diet” was a totally sarcastic weaving of words and tune that had the audience laughing throughout, followed by a love song entitled “You’re the Wonder of My World” that she dedicated to her husband, and was accompanied by the statement that the more she sang it aloud, the better her marriage got. “Where Did the Country Go” spoke of the raw, natural countryside’s we used to know as Bernice intro’d the song with the story of a trip she and her family took to Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii, driving about in a little, not-so-great putt-putt of an automobile with her bored then 3-year-old jostling around in the back seat. The set ended with a lively rendition of Michael Smith’s “Dead Egyptian Blues”, speaking of King Tut and supposing if he were alive today, how odiferous and disheveled he might be after thousands of years in his tomb and what the worth of his possessions might be. At the conclusion of that hilarious tune, Bernice got a lively approval rating with applause of the audience.

When everyone was coming into the church to attend the evening’s show, Garnet Rogers was milling about amongst everyone in a most friendly demeanor saying “hello” and shaking hands. It is really unusual for us at the ME AND THEE to have such a privilege before a performer goes on stage, usually being reserved for occasionally during a break, but usually after an evening’s show has concluded. I found Garnet to be a warm, down-to-earth and witty man.

As Bernice was leaving the stage, Garnet was right there on the side with guitar in hand, ready to do his show. He quickly took a seat center-stage in front of the microphone, tuned his guitar and opened with a beautiful song, “Small Victory”. It’s about how a champion horse that was ridden into the ground, and once injured, is forgotten and headed possibly to a glue factor. He is taken in and saved by a man with a caring, loving heart. The story develops into the growing relationship between man and equine with beautifully written lyrics.

As I listened to this haunting and fixating tune, I looked back behind Garnet at a selection of no less than SIX guitars he’d brought with him, a 1933 dark wood Gibson with a face and fret-board of an early ivory-colored plastic composition similar to bake-o-lite, a beautiful red small mandolin-shaped electric instrument with TWELVE STRINGS called a “mandoguitar”, a 1931 “National” steel guitar and several other Gibson’s. For the rest of the show, he actually managed to include all of the instruments he’d brought in his repertoire, all but one of which were Gibson’s, each chosen particularly to compliment that song with special musical effects and sounds. As each new instrument sat on his lap being played, I marveled at and watched his hands as they picked and glided over the strings. Garnet is an equally accomplished “master” of all of these.

He was not at all shy about his distaste for and disapproval of our current president, George Bush, whom he referred to as “that man that runs your country”, nor expressing his political views, for which he confessed he himself has gotten some disapproving remarks from people. He no-less-than-BURST into a very driving song called “Junior” about our president, and it seems everyone in the room was in agreement with his feelings by their hoots and thunderous applause at the song’s conclusion.
A few of us couldn’t keep from shouting out loud, “Thanks for speaking our minds, too, Garnet!” The next song was a hauntingly beautiful one called, “Icharis” which was accompanied hauntingly by the 1933 Gibson. Garnet sailed smoothly, like a small craft on glassy-smooth waters, through the first half of the show with the audience singing along to “Oh How Happy You Have Made Me,” followed by a love song he written for a friend and then sang at her wedding and others since, as well.

I walked up to the stage as the audience exited the room for intermission, and then took the opportunity to tell Garnet what a fabulous performer he is and what a fan I am of his music. He seemed genuinely humbled by the words. During the entire break, people “thronged” to the table to purchase CD’s, which he would graciously sign at the end of the evening’s show.

Garnet opened the second set sweetly and hauntingly playing the 1931 National steel guitar to accompany the sweet and gentle “Soul Kiss”. It in total contrast to most of the latter songs in the first half of the show and those to yet come. “Can I Get A Witness”, “Juliet”, and “I Can’t Go Home Again” seemed to capture the audience, as well as Garnet’s recall of his “drunken days in Camden, New Jersey with Archie Fisher, his stage partner for 14 years, with whom he spoke of having a tumultuous and very public break-up right on stage. He seemed regretful and sad about telling the story, and followed it with a rich rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “My Blood Brother”.

The highlight of the evening was a back-to-back POWERHOUSE of a performance with his most-requested tune, “Night Drive” that segued glidingly into his brother Stan’s equally driven and popular “Northwest Passage”. As I closed my eyes, I recalled our family trips up to New Brunswick province in Canads, and could picture the blazing red and orange sunsets, waves upon waves of clouds picking up the same hue, and the advent of evening skies as we sped along the vast expanse of highway in the family car. The excitement and fury of that song raised goose pumps on my arms and the hair on the back of my neck. Garnet apologized before starting this selection, for the loudness of his guitar and length of the tunes, but the audience didn’t seem to care. They showed their approval and thirst as being quenched when they erupted in unison to give Garnet a long, well-deserved round of applause, accompanied by shouts of “hooray” and foot stomping FOR MORE, MORE. He satisfied and pacified the audience with the Beatles’ “I Will Love you Forever and Forever”, to which he asked the audience to sing along. No one seemed to want the evening to end, but it did, after which Garnet signed his CD’s in the sanctuary and outer halls, as well.

This tall, lanky handsome man commands silent attention when he enters a room, and then actively captures and holds it in his grip for the entire duration of his time on stage. His lyrics are like the paintings of the great masters in the pictures they paint, the color variations of the emotions they evoke, and vacillate from gentle to very powerful. He just seemed to pull everyone up onstage with him in sharing his life’s experiences through his songs and stories. For me, it was another night I was so wound up with energy from the show, that I couldn’t fall asleep before 3:00 a.m. All I can say is WOW!

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