PRESS | Ben Rogers
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/music/new-music-320861161.html
http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/13844946.Storyteller_in_song_and_on_screen/
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Album+week+Bloodred+Yonder+Rogers/11301901/story.html
http://kingstonmusicreviews.ca/ben-rogers-releases-new-video-for-panhandler/
http://www.newcanadianmusic.ca/releases/t/the-bloodred-yonder/ben-rogers/2015-08-11
http://www.musicletter.it/?x=entry:entry150813-104609
http://exclaim.ca/music/article/ben_rogers-bloodred_yonder_album_stream?&utm_source=twitteredc&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=edctwitter
http://exclaim.ca/music/article/ben_rogers-bloodred_yonder
http://ridethetempo.com/2015/06/24/listen-ben-rogers-wild-roses/
“With a whisky-grizzled voice that competes with Tom Waits’s, and singing the stories of the down and out and dispossessed, Ben Rogers could be the 21st century reincarnation of Woody Guthrie. Lost Stories:Volume One tells universal tales of love, death and murder with the authority of an Old Testament prophet.”
-R2 (Rock ‘n’ Reel) Magazine
If you took half the raw talent in Vancouver’s young roots scene and added it together, you’d probably still fall short of one Ben Rogers. You need to see him live to catch the dark, onstage charisma, but his spooked sounding baritone comes through loud and scary on the newly released Lost Stories: Volume 1, as does the gift for spinning his own private Americana on tracks like opener, “The Dealer.”
Rogers also asks a lot of the listener when, in his most affected performance, he starts an album with the line, “I was born in Carolina, raised with a heavy hand…” Because, you know, he wasn’t. We’re left to decide whether or not we buy the range of Guthrie-to-Springsteen archetypes Rogers adopts across the record — murderous cuckold in “The Cheatin’ Kind”; a convict sent to Vietnam in “Jailbird Song”; gold panning killer in “The Devil’s Crop (500 Miles)” — or who he’s speaking for besides his own fertile imagination.
But then we also have tracks like “Once a Wife, Twice a Widow,” in which Lazarus and Ulysses somehow get folded into Rogers’ own personal mythology, or “Kingdom Come,” a gospel number that trails off – rather untraditionally — into a cloud of ominous dissonance. I’m still trying to figure out what he’s getting at with the lady who “rules with an iron tampon” in “Lay it Down,” but it’s in these quirks and outré moments that I feel like I’m hearing the real artist, and not a master impressionist.
To put it another way, Rogers has plunked himself inside a genre that values authenticity even more than a voice that stops you dead or songwriting chops that could open the door to a nice publishing deal. If Lost Stories is the last thing he ever did, it would be an enormous achievement, but I hope Ben Rogers continues to write from experiences closer to his own home — as he does to powerful effect on “Cowboys and Indians.” There are plenty more damaged souls and grim campfire tales right here in our backyard that could use his voice and sensitivity.
-By Adrian Mack, 31 Jan 2013, TheTyee.ca
This Vancouver, Canada native has the distinction of producing as good a debut album as you are likely to hear, certainly lyrically. It is rooted in the story telling of a deep dark folk genre but also occasionally sprinkles a little bluesiness for good measure. It is an extraordinary album chock full of powerful lyrical tales that tell some incredibly evocative stories that very few can match.
Bens deep, raw vocal range has its limitations, but then so does that of many great singer songwriters, in fact such is the quality of the stories he tells that it is acceptable to compare him to many of his predecessors, such as John Prine, in their early days. He never tries to reach notes too high or too low, ensuring that there is always a pleasantly raw lilt that allows the listener to concentrate on the tale that is being told. Those vocals are perfectly suited to these stories that are unadorned with any superfluous colouration, relying instead on his portrayal of the story, and boy does it work!
Ben handles all lead vocals, plays guitar, harmonica, mandolin, banjo, autoharp, piano, organ and drum, so it’s no exaggeration to give him the label of ‘multi instrumentalist,’ added to which he also produced the album, although Jenn Bojm and Craig Mechler do help out with vocals on Kingdom Come. All songs were written by Ben with the exception of Kingdom Come, for which he wrote the lyrics but the music was co written with Johan Carlsson.
Everything about this album is minimalist and sparse except for the quality which, again lyrically, is extraordinary. Not that the music is bad; it’s just that whilst there are some excellent melodies the album is as lyric driven as any album I can ever recall hearing, to such a degree that every song has an incredibly powerful and descriptive cinematic quality. The entire recording is slow and moody, in much the same way as Springsteens ‘Nebraska,’ and includes few if any tempo changes but loses none of its power as a consequence. It is that moodiness that often sets the album apart, giving plenty of meat to the stories that in the main carry immense power and engender an avalanche of sympathy in the listener.
The album opens with The Dealer a song that sets the scene for much that follows, driven by acoustic guitar and occasional harmonica on the story of someone who moves to the city and falls into drug dealing purely by chance. It is dark and haunting and gets more so as he sinks ever deeper into his new found ‘profession’ until the tale reaches its inevitable conclusion. It is a thematically dark story that has an inbuilt raw, threatening atmosphere that draws the listener in to a dreary life on the edge. The Cheatin’ Kind prowls the deep darkness on a powerful murder ballad of a man giving his cheating wife what he considers to be her just desserts on a song on which Bens vocal is slightly reminiscent of John Prine. That is followed by Cowboys And Indians, a tale built on a simple melody on which his vocal has an air of monotony but the story is a tremendously powerful and quite gripping ‘interracial’ love story that ends in tragedy but with an ironic twist! The use of the harmonica gives the song an even deeper and varied atmosphere. Jailbird Song includes a lovely chiming mandolin on an epic story of a prisoner who is released to go off and fight the war in Vietnam. This is a deeply refective tale that makes a point of the contradictions in spending years in jail for a minor robbery against the giving of medals for ‘killing thirty men.’ Thought provoking as well as current. Finally, 500 Mile Blues (The Devil’s Crop) is led by a nice acoustic guitar and ‘stomp’ on the epic story that twists and turns of a man who leaves his family to travel a long way to find work and eventually after many adventures gets more than he bargained on. The tale is given an extra lift by a haunting harmonica break mid way.
If your musical preference is for realistic story songs you will be very fortunate to have found a finer example than this incredible recording. Dylan was/is an excellent writer of songs built on metaphor, whereas Ben Rogers has made a tremendous start on the road to being a master of realism. Buy the album and listen to some amazing, evocative tales. I’m told that seeing him perform these stories in a live setting is even better, so if you get the chance ……….! “
– Mike Morrison (American Roots UK)
THERE ARE GOLD-RUSH killers, jailbirds in ’Nam, and jealous men with murder on their mind in Ben Rogers’s Lost Stories: Volume 1. But the man’s dark charisma is something you need to experience live to fully appreciate. He’s like a gravity well pulling you into a black-and-white picture from a different century.
–The Georgia Straight (Best bands of 2013 Edition)
Ben Rogers is a singer songwriter from Vancouver who effortlessly recreates the rugged country burr of legends such as Johnny Cash and Guy Clark. In his latest offering, Lost Stories: Volume I, Rogers offers us an album of lyrically dense story songs which include, among others, songs about cowboy and Indian love trysts and hitting the lonesome road to meet the denizens who haunt it.
Lost Stories: Volume I is a gritty and lonesome sounding record which has clearly modelled itself on Springsteen’s Nebraska. Here you will find wistful harmonica and off mic crooning akin to ‘Atlantic City’. Where Jonathon Wilson has recently garnered praise for his recreation of the sound of 1960s and 1970s west coast America, so Rogers should be given equal credit for carrying the flame of country soul. Though the songs concern standard country music fair Rogers sings them with enough conviction to convey an experience in the subject matter. Who cares if Rogers isn’t actually a rambler or gunslinger, he sounds like one.
This is a highly enjoyable and accessible record that weaves tales and harmonies. No doubt Volume II will continue the story.
-Thursday, 26 June 2014
Matthew Boulter, Americana UK
Whilst it is always rewarding to work at getting to know a recording through repeated plays, allowing its subtleties and secrets to emerge gradually until it’s difficult to imagine not knowing it, there is even greater reward when an album clicks immediately on first listen. Here’s one.
Although born and raised in Vancouver, Ben Rogers, like his fellow countrymen of The Band, has the ability to interpret themes and events pertinent to the whole of the North American sub-continent and he’s a fine storyteller, in the Steve Earle/Tom Russell vein.
The comfort of the immediacy with which Rogers’s songs demand attention is due largely to the non-complex approach taken. Accompaniment is simple, often just Rogers and one of his acoustic instruments, the occasional adornment of mouth harp, with his gruff, earthy vocal mixed well up. It sounds live and has a sparkling and intimate clarity.
Like so many troubadours favouring the solo acoustic approach, his narratives are mini-dramas, folk, blues and country-nuanced, more often than not speaking up on behalf of the downtrodden, misunderstood and forsaken, but not without humour. ‘Once A Wife, Twice A Widow’, makes the transition from biblical and Greek mythology – Lazarus and Ulysses, no less – to the plight of the struggling musician, tempted to
‘…fake my death and vanish
And maybe then I’ll sell some albums
My wife’ll do the work and I’ll come back to her
When she has made my millions’
When he does hit hard, most notably on the insistent epic 7-minutes plus ‘Cowboys and Indians’, a tale of inter-racial passion and prejudice, not a syllable or semi-quaver is wasted, and it would be an extremely dispassionate listener who doesn’t concentrate on the narrative as it unfolds.
The easy-swinging gospel of ‘Kingdom Come’ is another joy, its mini-choral harmony, church handclaps and massed whistling enhancing Rogers’s weary delivery and the performance is imbued with the atmosphere of a Southern revival meeting.
There are no weaknesses on ‘Lost Stories: Volume One’. Its contents are tailor-made for live performance. Another UK tour would be very welcome indeed.
July 27, 2014
– David James Innes, Flying Shoes Blog
An incredible talent was discovered last night at the Prince Albert in Brighton. No, it wasn’t Luke Doucet. The assemblage were already aware of his prowess. The discovery was of Ben Rogers. He could, if given a decent chance, turn out to be one of the best singer/songwriters for a generation. I kid you not. He is that good. Add to the songwriting his deep expressive voice and you have a sure fire winner if there is any justice left in this world!” – American Roots UK
“Ben’s voice stands front and center. Even when he shifts into a more Dylan-esque folk track like The Bums of Easy Street, he’s engaging and 100% believable. He can sing about Cowboys and Indians (although again the 7-minute slow burner is more about racism than your typical Western nare-do-wellism), dust bowl epics or broken hearts and you never question the sincerity of his characters.” – herohill.com
Wow. Part of the pleasure of listening to this Vancouver singer songwriter’s record is that you never know what he’ll do next… Ben Rogers could be advancing big time…(He) lists everybody from Tom Waits, Johnny Cash and Marcel Duchamp as influences and, sure ‘nuff, you can hear it in the music, fresh but well steeped.” – The Vancouver Province
“Ben Rogers has a voice like a warm deep bath after a long cold day, a voice you can sink into and relish. He tells you stories, he summons up images of people living real lives. He doesn’t turn his head away from the realities of urban life, such songs as ‘The Dealer’ bear witness to that but he can also conjure up the pains and struggles of the past with the skill of a vocal shaman. He also made us laugh at ourselves, at the ridiculous, when to be human sometimes means perpetually skidding on a banana skin into an oncoming emotional truck. The tenderness of some of his songs, especially those inspired by his grandfathers, never wallow in sentiment, instead they celebrate those moments of real connection with what it means to love someone; that acknowledgement of something that is both fragile and yet enduring. He sings like a man who lives to sing and share his stories, the audience loved him because they instinctively knew that they were getting the real deal, someone who lives what he sings, who doesn’t fake it.” – CB1 Poetry (Cambridge, UK)
“With his best Bob Dylan sneer, Rogers belted out grungy folk-country tunes whose lyrics ranged from Cash-esque run-ins with the law to James Joyce references. Along the way, he broke a few strings, discarded an acoustic guitar that wouldn’t play through the P.A., sorted out some technical issues with the replacement guitar (“How do you turn this shit down? This is folk music!”), and for good measure threw in a terrific cover of Rancid’s “Time Bomb.” There’s just something about hearing the word “Cadillac” in a southern twang. The trio’s set was highlighted by the slow-burning “Born to Move,” reminiscent of the Velvet Underground’s “Heroin,” both in Rogers’ spoke-sung vocals, with the gradual build from muted ambience to all out cacophony, and in its haunting, surreal beauty.” – Port City Lights
“Ben Rogers is as cheeky in person as he is on tape. He possesses a unique voice and wit to match.” – Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar, Grady)
“Ben Rogers’ album smacks of unhampered creativity… Ben captures the storytelling and poignancy of country music without sacrificing lyrical depth. On the contrary, Rogers’ lyrics are a unique collection of metaphors.” – Youthink Magazine
“After hearing about Ben and delving into what he was all about I found myself liking the man more and more. Ben has an unmistakeable timbre of a voice, not that disimilar to Bob Dylan, he has the stage presence to carry it off as well.” –Folk Radio UK
“Too Cool!” – Swerve Magazine
“I missed the first round of critical praise that was rightfully heaped on Vancouver roots singer-songwriter Ben Rogers in 2010. My compatriots at You Crazy Dreamer, Herohill and Slowcoustic all piled on understandably. When I came across what appears to be a new album (or ep) called Lost Stories I knew I didn’t want to wait. I contacted Ben yesterday and the post is up today.
Ben Rogers is living in the past and you can hear it on this unsettling collection of murder songs and folk tales. His voice is whiskey soaked and reminds me of what a young Malcolm Holcombe must have sounded like (before his voice was savaged by cigaretts, liquor, and time). Rogers’ lyrics are poetic and contain images Leonard Cohen would be proud of (listen to “Lay It Down” on Bandcamp). I could drop a few more names (the Pogues, Tom Waits) but by now you get the drift.” – songsillinois.net
“I’ve met Ben Rogers a couple of times and also listened to some of his songs. He’s an impressive guy; whether it’s his style, dedication or his music you like. you know he’s the real thing. His lyrics are among the best I’ve heard.” – Max Martin (Writer/Producer)
“A song of Ben Rogers that I’d like to showcase is “The Dealer”. This track does a great job expressing the description of his style, and will blow you away. ”The Dealer” is off his most recent album, Lost Stories, which was released today. Ben Rogers has a voice that will captivate you from the start and leave you wanting more. Don’t just take it from me, press play.” – humanfankind.com
