Ray Manzarek & Roy Rogers – Poetic Blues

The days inch closer to the May 25th concert at the Ridgefield Playhouse featuring keyboardist magician Ray Manzarek (The Doors) and Roy Rogers, blues guitarist extraordinaire.  The Manzarek-Rogers Band collaboration has yielded a new recording Translucent Blues, a gutsy, driving literature of sound and dimension I call blues poetic.

Truth of the matter is, this is the second collaboration between Ray Manzarek and Roy Rogers. Their first recording together, Ballads Before The Rain was released in 2008. It is a delightful potpourri of music melodies, starting off very classical, veering into familiar territories such as “Crystal Ship”  ( a flawlessly nuanced piano solo, which I can’t happily stop playing) and “Riders on the Storm”, ending in a poetic surreal setting, “American Pastoral”.

Roy Rogers produced one of my favorite blues albums, The Healer by John Lee Hooker, which also features Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt.

I’m spending some quality time this weekend getting to know the blues guitar work of Roy Rogers. I like to do my homework before I see musicians in concert. I like what I am hearing by Roy Rogers so far. He has an extensive catalogue.

I have seen Ray Manzarek play with The Doors of the 21st Century in 2004 and 2005. Then I saw the Manzarek Krieger band in 2009 in Ridgefield. I enjoy Ray Manzarek in a live setting, he’s such a cool guy.

This will be a monumental concert, I just have that feeling

Related articles

• The Prolific Ray Manzarek (musicofourheart.wordpress.com)
• Manzarek-Rogers Band, Wed. May 25th, Ridgefield Playhouse (theconcertslut.wordpress.com)