Rogers has soft spot in folk music heart for Alberta

By Tim Kalinowski on September 14, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

Garnet Rogers is one of Canada’s most respected folk music talents. Known for his deep, resonate voice and mystical and poetic musical odysseys which experiment with an incredibly rich sonic palette, Rogers comes from a distinguished musical pedigree. Garnet’s brother Stan Rogers (who tragically passed away in 1983), is now considered a Canadian musical icon as the writer of “Barrett’s Privateers,” “The Northwest Passage” and “The Mary Ellen Carter.” Garnet toured with his older brother during those heady times, helping to put Stan’s most famous lyrics to music.

Garnet recently announced his upcoming tour of Alberta will be his last as he gets set to retire from the road. Garnet says he will miss Alberta as it is a province with an important history for his family, both good and bad.

During their early rough and tumble years on the road in the late 1970s, as chronicled in Garnet’s new book “Night Drive: Travels with my Brother,” Garnet and Stan played some tough rooms in the province, with one in Jasper being especially memorable.

“Stan was charged with attempted murder in Jasper,” recalls Garnet. “There was a place there where we shouldn’t have been playing, but we needed the money and it was a $700 guarantee for a week. There were just guys from the railroad and oilfield workers, and they all hated each other. But they were able to put aside their differences because they hated us even more. It just got worse and worse as the week went on, and finally Stan came off the stage and went after a guy with a mic stand.”

Garnet admits he and his brother often brought their troubles on themselves.

“We were playing folk music, but we were playing it high volume with a lot of aggression and energy on stage in an effort to try to be heard. We had this incredibly loud, out-of-control energy. Back then, it was a lot of hard-living, a lot of booze, a lot of drugs, and a lot of bad behaviour off stage. The thing I really wanted people to understand with the book is it was an awful and terrifying at the time, but it was all really so crazy and funny.”

Alberta was also the place where the Rogers brothers began to see their first glimmers of future success.

“Touring with my brother was like joining a badly organized pirate crew or a low-rent circus,” says Garnet with a laugh. “You are just out there trying to make it work. Eventually people did start taking us seriously, and Alberta was where it all started for us. I credit the Calgary Folk Club for turning our fortunes around. Suddenly we had a huge audience out here, and we went from playing 60-seat clubs which were half-full to within two years playing the Jubilee Auditorium.”

Garnet has had a difficult past three years, dealing with the illness and deaths of his parents. It was this extended break which helped him realize there was richness to life beyond the road.

“Gail (his wife) and I have a 20-acre property, and we have been working on it for about 19 years to turn it into a bird sanctuary … To sit there on a summer evening and see all birds in the trees and feeding. They are so loud and colourful, and it’s very peaceful. I guess you could say I have found my safe harbour and my shore.”

Garnet Rogers plays the Ye Olde Jar Bar Thursday night. The show is sold out.

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