Lee Rogers - Green Note, London 29/06/2022
They say that timing is everything. This certainly seems to be the case with Lee Rogers, the Northern Irish singer-songwriter who surprisingly left the world of music behind some fifteen years ago to embark on a career as a tattooist, opening his own studio and winning multiple awards in the process. Only to return in the last couple of years with a burst of musical creativity to make many of his peers more than a little jealous. Naturally, we jumped at the chance to catch up with Lee when it was announced he would be opening for The Sam Chase at the always-welcoming Green Note in London's Camden Town.
With the release of the ‘Dark Notions' EP in late 2021 and now a full album, ‘Gameblood’ Lee is certainly making up for lost time. The two releases show the range of his songwriting and make him quite hard to pigeonhole musically, but we seem to be going with Americana, “I think It’s my voice” Lee told me over a pint, which seems the best way to try to explain the combination of folky troubadour and roughhewn bluesman that has echoes of John Martyn delivered with the pop nous of Springsteen circa Tunnel Of Love. Lee’s strength lies in his songcraft and his delivery of what are often deeply personal tales of love and loss. The ‘Gameblood’ album utilizes synths and a percussive driven, almost 80s sound - thanks in no small part to fellow Irishman Gareth Dunlop’s lush production - but the songs work equally well stripped back to just Lee’s impressive voice and acoustic guitar. This approach is perfect for the intimate exposed brick, red velvet-curtained confines of the Green Note. As a side note and a little bit of trivia: Lee mentioned the latest viral superstar, Kate Bush. Can you spot the connection to ‘Wuthering Heights’ in one of the tunes on ‘Gameblood’?
Lee Rogers by Laura Maria Photography
Seated and crouched over his guitar, the unsurprisingly heavily inked singer cuts an intense yet relaxed figure from underneath his flat cap. As I mentioned earlier, songs from ‘Gameblood’ work well in this configuration, allowing plenty of room for Lee’s expansive vocal to cut through; warm, husky but with range and added bite when required in keeping with the lyrical content. Opening with ‘Everytime’ it's obvious we’re in for a treat as Lee only has thirty minutes but uses his time wisely digging deep into 'Gameblood' with ‘Life and Lies’, and ‘Uneasy Love’ with its reference to ‘Mule Variations’ particularly impressive. As it turns out, the Tom Waits reference has a bizarre origin relating to an Australian (I think) road trip where the classic album got stuck in the tape machine on endless repeat for the entire journey. We were also treated to a wonderful take on ‘Silent Songs’, a song Lee readily admits took a year or two for him to be in the right headspace to finally record. The ‘Dark Notions’ EP was also represented with the biting, bluesy ‘Hellbound’ showing a different side of the singer that wouldn’t be out of place on an Amigo The Devil record. Surprisingly, Lee also found time to slip in ‘IDA’ a track from his 2006 debut album ‘Drawing Clocks’, an album about which, unsurprisingly, after all this time, Lee is a little conflicted, feeling that his influences are maybe a little too evident. I'd say he's being far too hard on himself, and ‘Clocks’ is well worth tracking down.
Lee Rogers is making up for lost time musically; this London date was hot on the heels of a US tour with Foy Vance that included shows in Woodstock at the Levon Helm Studios and Lee will be back opening for Foy on his upcoming European dates. While a rearranged co-headline date with Gareth Dunlop in London later this year is one not to be missed.
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to add a quick word about The Sam Chase. I wasn’t familiar with Sam before this evening, but he was excellent. Sam is a fun guy playing a string of seemingly endless “sad” songs with much humour. In one particularly amusing anecdote, Sam recalled his pride at playing a festival with the legendary John Prine; on a different day, at ten in the morning, but, as he rightly said, it still means he played a festival with John Prine. Working as a trio with Chandra Johnson (violin/vocals) and Devon McClive (cello/vocals) their sound has been dubbed “Chamber Americana” which is as good a tag as any, I guess (old-school, rootsy and with a cello to you and me). Great set and I look forward to delving into Sam’s back catalogue ASAP.
Lee’s records are available from Amazon below and you can check out the great work the Zenith Cafe label are doing via this link:
To learn a little more about Lee Rogers:
As the world seemingly came to a grinding halt due to a global pandemic, there was still plenty happening in Gareth Dunlop's own Sycamore Studios in Northern Ireland as he produced impressive releases from Foy Vance and Lee Rogers. He also found the time to complete a very fine album of his own in ‘Animal’. Gareth is now busy on the road as a solo performer and as a member of Foy Vance’s band, but we were able to catch up with the singer/songwriter to get a few thoughts on the lockdown, an early love of Lynyrd Skynyrd and his fledgeling attempts at being in a band - which will sound very familiar to some of us. So, over to Gareth Dunlop for the latest edition of the Baker’s Dozen here at Red Guitar Music.