- Manzarek-Rogers ready to give festivalgoers the blues
- Ray Manzarek is one of the legends of rock 'n' roll, a member of its Hall of Fame as the keyboardist and founder of The Doors.
But while an admitted baseball follower, he's obviously not a die-hard fan of either the Los Angeles Dodgers — The Doors' home team — or of the San Francisco Giants — Manzarek's home team as a longtime Napa resident.
How do we know this? Check out his answer to this question.
- Rock legend, blues guitarist join forces
- Doors co-founder Ray Manzarek takes the stage at 6:30 p.m. Manzarek, keyboard player for the Doors, one of the biggest rock group of the 1960s, will headline the 16th annual Sonora Music Festival along with slide guitarist Roy Rogers. They will perform songs from their new album, “Translucent Blues,” which just hit No. 1 on the Roots Music Report.
- Roy Rogers tops a strong five-concert lineup at this year's Sunday Blues in the Park in Seaside
- You really know that summer has arrived on the Monterey Peninsula when the start of the annual "Sunday Blues" concerts is announced. Consider yourself informed. Get out your sun block and dancing shoes. Hallelujah, it's summer!
In a phone interview from his home in Nevada City, blues slide guitarist extraordinaire and two-time Grammy-winning producer Roy Rogers talked with GO! magazine about many wide-ranging topics, including the recent release of a new recording project with keyboardist Ray Manzarek, formerly of The Doors, titled "Translucent Blues."
"We've been doing duet things," Rogers said of his musical relationship with Manzarek. "Ray and I have known each other for five or six years. This album emanated from the duet gigs we were doing. We did a record as a duet called 'Ballads Before the Rain' before this. But this ('Translucent Blues') is a full-blown rocker, as you can hear. We really had a lot of fun doing this. It's a great story. It just came together so seamlessly. We had just come back from an East Coast tour, which was very, very well received. So I'm delighted. We've been playing New York and Boston, major places, and I'm happy to say people are responding greatly to the record."
- ‘Rebel’ Rod’s Reviews – Ray Manzarek/Roy Rogers – Translucent Blues
- Co-founder of The Doors, Ray Manzarek and slide-guitarist extraordinaire Roy Rogers have collaborated on projects before and have been very successful at it. However, with their latest project, “Translucent Blues”, they have exceeded their past endeavors and set the proverbial bar at a new height. I literally fell in love with every single tune on the record.
I always knew that Mr. Manzarek had a distinct style as a keyboardist, but I guess I just never realized how distinct until listening to “Translucent Blues”. His piano/keyboard playing stands out and adds an entire extra layer to nearly each song. Mr. Roger’s slide-guitar is appropriately layered in, creating a sound that goes beyond blues or rock. It is unique and refreshing all the way through. [Read More...]
- Ray Manzarek and Roy Rogers Translucent Blues
- Ray Manzarek has always been the better half of The Doors. Old Jim Morrison gets most of the credit, as front men often do, but at the end of the day he was just another kid with poetic pretensions who liked to get a little too fucked up. So I guess if The Doors were actual doors that would make Morrison the thick, heavy part you can’t see through, and Manzarek would be more like the hinges; the part that makes the whole thing move. The fact that he has teamed up with legendary guitar player Roy Rogers might explain why Translucent Blues has a very familiar air about it - In a good way. These aren’t songs you’ve likely heard before, but something inside might tell you otherwise
- New CD from Ray Manzarek and Roy Rogers to be released in May!
- Roy Rogers added, "This collaboration with Ray was a joy from start to finish.
We found inspiration not only from the music and lyrics, but most of all from
each other--to create a great sound. To me, the blues is as complex a music
as it gets--either you feel it or you don't. But when you add the spice of some
of these lyrics, it definitely takes you on a different route. Take a ride with us." [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.
- Roy Rogers: Sliding into new musical territories
- One of the world's foremost slide guitarists, Roy Rogers, grew up in the Bay Area. As a musician, at 60, he's still growing. After all, in blues circles, 60 means you're still just a kid.
"There's always lots to discover, in anything, especially the blues," Rogers told The Daily News. "Roots music is as deep as you want to delve. It's a never-ending story. It's never a finite thing that you've accomplished. If you think you have, you're sadly mistaken ... or fooling yourself, one of the two. There's always something that you can learn. If you think you've done it all and you're there, then you might as well give it up."
Far from giving it up, Rogers looks forward to playing Redwood City's Club Fox on Saturday. He'll be backed by his band, The Delta Rhythm Kings.
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_17212418?nclick_check=1
- 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...]
- Rogers, Manzarek team up at Napa Opera House
- One worked with the legendary blues player John Lee Hooker, the other with rock icon Jim Morrison.
While Hooker and Morrison never managed to record together, at least Roy Rogers and Ray Manzarek have. The two musicians with local ties and impressive credentials take the stage together Oct. 23 at the Napa Valley Opera House.
Rogers, the 51-year-old slide guitar wizard with Vallejo roots, and Manzarek, Chicago-bred keyboardist for The Doors, realized about four years ago their styles and mutual appreciation works well on stage and in studio, where they follow "Ballads Before the Rain" with the upcoming release of "Translucent Blues."
"It's a common sharing of intellectual curiosity," said Manzarek of the duo's chemistry. "And what a slide player Roy is. One of the best players around."
Manzarek met Rogers via an introduction by the booking agent who works with both performers.
"He said, 'Why don't you guys get together and play some tunes,'" remembered Manzarek. "And it's worked out fine."
Manzarek, enjoying some of his wife's homemade apple pie early Wednesday morning from their Napa home, said the opera house audience can expect some blues, a "little bit of classical," a little bit of jazz and some Doors songs.
"And, in between, we will tell stories," Manzarek said, laughing that though his brain has "millions of stories" in the files, "they're not all readily recallable. They're piled on top of each other."
He easily recalls those fishing days with his dad in Lake Michigan, his years at De Paul University and then at UCLA where he enrolled in 1960.
"By the time you reach 70, you know how many memories you have in your brain?" Manzarek said.
Fortunately, he has no problems playing and sharing some of the "colorful" tales of Morrison, who died at ...'
[Read More...]
