Hey Folks!  Taking a couple of weeks off for production of the new Ray Manzarek/ Roy Rogers' project 'Twisted Tales' which will be out soon ~ and some work for a new site called RiffTime - in which Roy will be doing some online lessons to be launched in the fall.

Look for upcoming new summer dates to be posted soon - and some new news about July travel in Norway and Fall travel in Europe!  ~  :)   Happy Spring!

Slide guitar great Roy Rogers will bring his unmistakable style to South Lake Tahoe this weekend, playing Harrah’s South Shore Room Saturday night.

Roy Rogers has been a blues man almost as long as he can remember. Born in Redding, Calif., in 1950, Rogers became immersed in the genre at a young age, finding blues roots in the developing folk and rock music scenes.

Read the full Tahoe Daily Tribune Story!

By Tim Parsons

www.tahoeonstage.com 

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.

Ninety percent of the time, Reyes said, the reaction is “Oh, my God. It’s a real harp.”

Reyes has played on a couple of Rogers records, and the two will be onstage Saturday, April 27, at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, along with Rogers longtime band the Delta Rhythm Kings, Kevin Hayes on drums and Steve Evans, bass.

“It’s all about expanding it, not resting on your laurels, and part of expanding that is interacting with other people, I am kind of known for that now,” said Rogers, who also teamed with former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Shana Morrison and produced four John Lee Hooker albums. “Collaborations, they force you to go in another spot. It’s a combo plate. I like that. It keeps you on your toes. I’ve collaborated with a lot of folks over the years and certainly Carlos Reyes is in a very special category.”

The category is so special, in fact, that Rogers and Reyes don’t even have a name for it.

“Sometimes when you have someone who you are so close to as a friend who also shares life’s thoughts and opinions,” Reyes said, “that after a while you develop this energy. And onstage, I couldn’t tell you what that is. Sometimes I’m afraid to try to describe it. I don’t want to jinx it.”

Rogers agrees.

“When he and I are onstage, this thing happens,” he said. “When Buffalo and I were onstage, this thing happened in a different way. When Carlos and I are onstage, this energy happens that I can’t describe.”

Reyes was born in Paraguay and to be a musician. The son of a musician, he began violin lessons before he was 4 years old. He was 5 when he played in his first concert.

The elder Reyes often performed in the United States with Spanish bandleader Xavier Cugat who was once married to the artist Charo. When Paraguay’s political climate made life unpredictable, the Reyes family moved permanently to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Reyes knew about Rogers since he was in high school. Both were in bands which played the same circuit. Rogers was from Vallejo and Reyes and – guess who? – Buffalo were from nearby Richmond. Buffalo and Reyes, who also plays violin and bass, collaborated throughout the years, and Buffalo more than a decade ago reintroduced Rogers and Reyes. The vibratory triumvirate had a similar chemistry, no matter the combination.

“I feel that I am a good chameleon about different kinds of music so sometimes it’s jazz or sometimes it’s bluesy,” Reyes said. “It’s kind of like a toolbox playing with Roy. It is the same way with Norton. We could just kind of explore different things that we learned playing with different people. I met Norton when I was 15. When we got reintroduced again with Roy, it was a natural match.”

Rogers, of course, always seems open to something new.

“With Carlos and I, much like with Buffalo but in certainly different fashion, there’s always an element of surprise,” he said. “That’s part of why I like the collaborative thing. You don’t quite know where it’s going to go, but it’s a lot of fun. If it’s fun for the musicians onstage, it’s always fun for the audience. Always.”

Reyes said the harp and violin are a contrast to Rogers’ slide guitar. But the different instruments meld in tone and approach.

“It’s almost like you don’t have to force it to keep going,” Reyes said. “What we have to do is remember to stop it so we can make it to the next part. For me it almost becomes like an out-of-body experience.”

Onstage, the experience is natural, but concertgoers might have to hear it to fully understand it.

“(Carlos) should be far more well known than he is,” Rogers said. “He’s truly a remarkable musician. But it’s not just about being a virtuoso. It’s about the energy and the synergy that happens onstage. You’ve seen me enough to know, the vibe onstage is crucial. It’s easy to do with a guy like Carlos. (But now it) will be with a harp player. I don’t know how in print you are going to get that across. You probably in parenthesis should say, ‘Not harmonica.’ There’s no other way to refer to a harp other than just a harp.”

Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings featuring Carlos Reyes

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27

Where: Harrah’s Lake Tahoe South Shore Room

Tickets: $27.50, www.ticketmaster.com, or phone 800-745-3000 or 866-448-7849

Last week -end at the Black Oak Casino show a new fan came up to the CD table and said to Roy

"I've never heard of you man...this was my first time - and I'll never forget it."

How sweet is that?  That's what keeps you going - people and inspiration like that!   Thank you.

See ya'll at Harrah's South Shore Room on April 27th - it's a beautiful time to be up in the Lake Tahoe area in the Spring!  Dancing shoes required.... ~ :)  Hearts wide open.  :)

Thanks everyone for all your wonderful responses to the newsletter. 

We have a winner for the trivia contest / raffle and that is Carl in Maryland.

Congrats!   Most of you were right too - the 'other' Roy Rogers' King of the Cowboy's name was

Leonard  Slye.   See you at the shows! :)

Welcome back to the Slide Zone and thanks for stopping in!

Spring is in the air - finally!  Our daffodils are standing straight up in the yard with iris' and tulips coming up in the rich earth up here in Nevada City, CA - - and as some of you know, we are in the Tahoe National forest.  Really beautiful right now - dogwoods are bursting too!  It's snowing pink petals! :)

We have some great shows in April to attend - and enjoy with friends and famililes. On April 12th come see Roy Rogers & DRK at the new Sweetwater in Mill Valley. A great venue with a great menu - come early for a table - and a great sound system and just a real fun local hang.

A rare appearance on Saturday April, 27th Roy Rogers & DRK will slide right in to Harrah's South Shore room - a fantastic place to enjoy world class views, hotels and casinos - and a room celebrating 50 years of presenting top notch entertainment.  Should be a great week-end up there!

For those of you connected to cable TV land - you may have noticed quite a few placements of Roy's songs in several broadcasts these past few months.  Showtime has been showing Kate Hudson's first film "Ricochet River" - and there is several of Roy's songs in this film.  The Movie Channel is using "Big Empty" in it's programming as well as Sirius XM, Playnet, And Dish are all programming Roy's music more frequently.  On the airlines the digital service AMI has increased his music on several different genres of music channels - blues, Americana and even instrumental - and you will occaisionally hear a Roy segment of music sneaking by on the morning national NPR news - as we have big fans over there. Thank you!!!

Supporting live music is so important to artists these days so please share these shows with friends and the music lovers in your life...always appreciate new and old fans coming up to us at shows and sharing their experiences with RR & DRK. All the best ~  See you soon!

Thanks to all our Northwest fans who showed up big time to support Roy and the band !

Now that was big fun! 

Look for new dates now posted for April - some surprise late adds like in South Shore Lake Tahoe that will be so beautiful in late April (27th) - so come on up! (Harrrah's Lake Tahoe South Shore Room!) with the fantastic multi-instrumentalist Carlos Reyes sitting in as Roy's special guest. 

And of course The New Sweetwater in Mill Valley on April 12th!  What a great job they've done with this club - that has such an important history in Bay Area music.

We look forward to these spring shows and are up-lifted by the new Spring light - time change and all the possibilites of what's to come.  All our best ~ XX

Hello Slide Zone Fans ~

March is here and Spring is around the corner - (remember daylight savings time changes on the 10th!) - and the band is headed up to the Pacific Northwest.  RR & DRK perform at  The Upstage in Port Townsend March 7th; The Triple Door in Seattle on March 8th; Whidby Island at the Mukilteo Coffee Roasters Wharehouse on March 9th; and a stop in to Portland, Oregon on March 10th (an early Sunday show) at the Albert Rose Theater.  FYI - a new run of T Shirts now on sale in the RR Music Store.

Come out and support live music and help us get some inspiration for the new season...

See you on the dance floor ~  !!