Garnet Rogers

{{Infobox musical artist

|name=Garnet Rogers

|image=GarnetRogers20080328.jpg

|caption=

|image_size=

|background=solo_singer

|birth_place=Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

|birth_date=May 1955

|death_date=

|instrument=Guitar, fiddle, vocals

|occupation=Singer-Songwriter

|label=Snow Goose

|website={{URL|garnetrogers.com}}

}}

Garnet Rogers (born May 1955) is a Canadian folk musician, singer, songwriter and composer. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario with Maritime roots.{{cite web|title=Garnet Rogers|url=http://www.flemingartists.com/artists/garnet-rogers|website=Fleming Artists|accessdate=March 12, 2016}}

Early life

Rogers was born in Hamilton, Ontario{{cite web|url=http://stanrogers.net/about/stan-rogers|work=Stan Rogers Biographies|title=Stan Rogers biodata|publisher=Fogarty's Cove Music|access-date=October 30, 2015}} to Nathan Allison Rogers and Valerie (née Bushell) Rogers, who had moved to Ontario from Nova Scotia to find work. Rogers, along with his elder brother Stan, was raised in Binbrook, Ontario,{{cite news |url=https://www.thespec.com/whatson-story/6789050-garnet-rogers-travels-with-my-brother-stan/ |title=Garnet Rogers: Travels with my brother, Stan |last=Rockingham |first=Graham |date=July 30, 2016 |website=The Hamilton Spectator }} and spent summers in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia.{{cite news |title=Script changed in new play |date=July 26, 1991 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/325828570/ |work=Nanaimo Daily Free Press |location=Nanaimo, British Columbia |volume=117 |issue=93 |department=Entertainment Guide and tvScene |page=14 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/fogartys-cove-maritime-legend-hard-reality-and-a-quarry-that-could-change-itall/article29641074/ |title=Ballad of Fogarty's Cove: The Nova Scotia legend, a hard reality and a quarry that could change it all |date=April 15, 2016 |author=Josh O'Kane |website=The Globe and Mail |publisher=Phillip Crawley |location=Toronto, Ontario}}

Career

Rogers began his professional career working with his brother Stan,{{cite news|url=http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2494898|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130204192430/http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2494898|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 4, 2013|title=Garnet Rogers bringing solo act and seven or eight guitars|date=March 17, 2010|newspaper=Peterborough Examiner|accessdate=April 7, 2010}} arranging Stan's music.

After Stan died in a plane crash on June 2, 1983 (just a few weeks before Stan, Garnet and bass player Jim Morison were to tour the US), Garnet began to pursue his own career.{{cite news|url=http://www.orangeville.com/what's%20on/article/652145--folk-legend-sings-in-support-of-go-go-grannies|title=Folk legend sings in support of Go Go Grannies|date=March 17, 2010|publisher=Orangeville Banner|accessdate=April 7, 2010}}

At first, Rogers had difficulty getting a permit from the U.S. Immigration Service, which only granted one after a campaign on his behalf was launched by Odetta, The Boston Globe, and a PBS TV station in New York.{{Cite web|url=https://acousticmusicscene.com/2012/11/21/quick-q-a-with-garnet-rogers/|title=Quick Q & A with Garnet Rogers| website=AcousticMusicScene.com| author=Michael Kornfeld| date=November 21, 2012}}

While his brother's style of writing was more traditional and often based on Canadian Maritime styles, Rogers' style is more modern, utilizing influences from blues, rock, country/bluegrass, and classical.{{cite news|url=http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/R/Rogers_Garnet/2007/07/27/4371757-sun.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716053932/http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/R/Rogers_Garnet/2007/07/27/4371757-sun.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=July 16, 2012|title=Garnet Rogers electrifying|date=July 27, 2007|publisher=CANOE|accessdate=April 7, 2010}}

Rogers' instruments include the guitar, mandolin, violin, and flute. In live performances, he usually sits beside a guitar rack that includes three vintage Gibson acoustic guitars, a National guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, and sometimes a Hammertone Octave 12 (half-scale electric 12-string guitar).{{cite news|url=http://news.therecord.com/arts/article/496677|title=Garnet Rogers delivers superb concert|date=March 1, 2009|newspaper=Waterloo Region Record|accessdate=April 7, 2010}}

Rogers' songs include The Outside Track, All That Is, Sleeping Buffalo, Night Drive, Under The Summer Moonlight, Summer Lightning, Small Victory, and Frankie and Johnny. They range from slices of life to mild social commentary and humour. His humour is also seen in his on-stage banter between songs, mostly unrecorded, except for a couple of interludes on his brother's posthumous album, "Home in Halifax". In addition, Garnet has covered other folk artists' work, including Roy Forbes' (Bim's) Woh Me, and Archie Fisher's The Final Trawl. His collaborators include Doug McArthur and Doug Long.{{cite news|url=http://news.guelphmercury.com/arts/article/333950|title=Album One of Finest from Fred Eaglesmith|date=May 29, 2008|newspaper=Guelph Mercury|accessdate=April 7, 2010}}

Rogers has also written "Night Drive," a memoir of his travels with his brother Stan, who died in a fire aboard an Air Canada flight in 1983.{{cite web|title=Stan Rogers bio|url=https://borealisrecords.com/artists/stan-rogers/?v=3e8d115eb4b3|website=Borealis Records|accessdate=June 27, 2018}}

Personal life

Garnet lives on a farm in Brantford, Ontario, where his wife Gail raises champion thoroughbreds.{{Cite news|url=https://www.heraldnews.com/story/entertainment/music/2019/02/21/a-songwriter-with-hair-raising/5891871007/|title=A songwriter with hair-raising tales to tell|author=Lauren Daley|newspaper=Fall River Herald| date=February 21, 2019}} They also own a house in Nova Scotia.