David Rogers -- My Music For Sale

David Rogers, known more for his classical guitar playing than his songwriting, goes whole hog into a singer-songwriter mode on this album. His practiced classical guitar playing is still here, accompanying his vocals of mostly original songs largely revolving around folklore and mythology of the Great Northwest. It contains the legendary Bigfoot song, performed at wilderness rallies and benefits from Breitenbush Hot Springs to Bald Mountain. The title song contains a range of characters based on real people. Other inspirations range from the song about the Forest Cathedral to reflections on spotted owls, a green escalator, and the ghosts of Shakespeare and a Kalapuya warrior. These intermingle with a re-adaptation of Antonio Caldara's 18th century dirgelike opera aria 'As on the Swelling Wave', and one inspired ballad each by songwriters Eric Park and Jim Scott. Truly one of a kind.

For the last dozen years, I have been writing what I call ‘Songs of the New West’. These songs describe my feelings and reactions to a modern western world where many of us may feel nudged and jostled by congested, competitive attitudes. Let us not allow these stresses and strains to shade out our love and empathy for our fellow creatures, human or otherwise. As Walt Whitman said: ‘Love the Earth and the Sun and the Animals; despise riches’. So welcome to the world of my own songs-- and in addition, my endeavor to cover some special songs by: Dave Carter, Will Shakespeare, Bobby Weir and John Perry Barlow; plus ballads by creative friends like Andrew Ross the King of Filk, Larry Dobberstein the singing videographer, and Bayard McConnaughey the late environmental activist. And above all, I always look for any excuse to keep my classical guitar playing digitally active. Please visit my website www.sasquatchguitar.com, and let me know how you like the songs on this album.

The all-original guitar music on this album was recorded in 1985, and released on vinyl LP in 1986. Originally recorded at Lark in the Morning Studio in Mendocino, California, there were no special recording tricks, no overdubbing--just live playing right into acoustic mikes. My influences at that time ranged from the folk-blues-ragtime fingerpicking style popular during the 'guitar boom' of the late 1960s and early 1970s, to the New-Age-quasi-impressionistic style of a few years later. I had majored in classical guitar, and made what Andres Segovia called 'our noble instrument' a part of my innermost being--and then worked in the woods and did evening venues on the side. A bad on-the-job accident in 1982 allowed me to practice for a time on full disability, with no day job using up my time. By the time I ventured into a recording studio, I was ready for some determined digital fingerboard dancing. I put this album out as a vanity venture to place upon the cracked mantlepiece of unsung guitar heroes. But it got better reviews than I expected. It still surfaces twenty years later, still in vinyl, selling on a weakly basis to a few enclaves in cities back east (with me never leaving the lovely, rustic Northwest--my website works in ways even I don't comprehend). So I recently had this album expertly remastered as a CD, to hopefully cross the present ears of music listeners, along with my other latter day recordings. Maybe I should work more of these pieces in again; my fingers could use the workout, and so could my mind; or at least I hope so.