LaMontagne, Manzarek & Rogers–

High Profile Folk And Blues Acts To Grace Local Stages May 25

By John Voket

Two relatively intimate local theaters will be hosting two very high profile acts next week. The Ridgefield Playhouse welcomes Ray Manzarek, legendary keyboardist from The Doors, who will be performing with his new recording partner, the renowned slide guitarist Roy Rogers, on Wednesday, May 25. That same evening, Waterbury’s Palace Theater will host this year’s Grammy winner for Best Folk Album, Ray LaMontagne and his band Pariah Dogs.

All three artists chatted briefly with The Newtown Bee this week. And while LaMontagne was somewhat reserved about the upcoming nationwide tour that kicks off in Waterbury, Rogers and Manzarek were conversely excited, even boisterous, as they chatted about their new collaboration entitled Translucent Blues.

Although the new album will be released on May 24 on Blind Pig Records, the band has launched its promotional tour and eager fans can listen to samples of all 12 tracks now at the Manzarek-Rogers Band website, www.manzarek-rogersband.com.

Manzarek has called Translucent Blues a “blues-rock collection of songs with powerful grooves, strong hooks and lyrics tinged with poetry and literary references.”

Most of the songs were written collaboratively, with contributions from legendary poets and lyricists, like beat poet Michael McClure; Jim Carrol, musician and author of The Basketball Diaries; jazz poet Michael C. Ford; and rock legend Warren Zevon.

Manzarek-Rogers Band members include Kevin Hayes, formerly with the Robert Cray band, on drums; Steve Evans, of The Elvin Bishop Band, on bass; and George Brooks, who has performed with John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain, on tenor saxophone.

“Translucent Blues is one part blues and one part rock, shaken hard with a twist of jazz,” said Rogers. The live shows the pair has performed to date, have included material from the new project, Doors hits like “Light My Fire” and “Riders on the Storm,” as well as classic blues and jazz tunes.

‘Hand In Glove’

Manzarek said he first became acquainted with his current recording partner about five years ago, when Rogers joined him onstage at a gig in northern California. The pair first collaborated a short time later, in 2008, on with the instrumental album Ballads Before the Rain.

“Lord, we synched up and it was one of those hand in glove situations,” Rogers said.

“I was doing a solo gig at the Raven Theater and Roy sat in,” Manzarek said. “We did about four or five numbers together. Some blues things, a little Erik Satie, and a Miles Davis number and he played so great, I just loved it.”

Rogers, called the modern master of slide guitar, has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards as a producer, songwriter and performer. He has performed with Carlos Santana, John Lee Hooker, Steve Miller, Bonnie Raitt, and others.

He likens his unique style of playing to that of a horn player, versus a guitarist, articulating the notes very precisely instead of the more loose or seemingly sloppy style of many of his contemporaries.

“A lot of guys are sharp or flat, you hear a lot of peripheral sounds,” Rogers said. “You can do a lot of things with the notes as far as bending with a slide, but I’ve pretty much been a stickler for playing right on the fret. I approach it more like a horn man. I listen to a lot of sax players.”

Manzarek describes Rogers as a “keyboard player’s slide guitarist.”

“It’s the sound and the chops. My God, watching that glass fly up and down the neck is quite a treat,” Manzarek said. “It’s the choice of notes – what is the dude playing?”

A more recent talent on the American music scene, LaMontagne has one of the remarkable stories in music’s past decade. Since leaving his job in a Maine shoe factory to pursue his calling as a musician, he has released three studio albums and two live EPs, won awards and topped critics’ polls internationally, and established himself as one of the most distinctive talents of his generation.

His songs have been featured in numerous films and television shows, including multiple performances of his compositions on American Idol.

The billing on LaMontagne’s fourth album, God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise, reveals instantly that something new is happening with this project. The record is credited to “Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs” — the first time that the singer-songwriter has defined himself within a band setting rather than as a solo artist.

“For this record, I was writing with the band in mind,” LaMontagne said. “I wanted it to be us. I wanted it to sound like us – like the sound we make when we play live. In the past it’s been different making records because there were big string sections and big horn sections. This was a very different direction.”

High Charting Debut

LaMontagne’s latest album is a follow-up to 2008’s Gossip in the Grain, which debuted in the Top Five on the Billboard charts, garnered two 2010 Grammy nominations, earned the musician a coveted performance slot on Saturday Night Live, and continued the expansion of a highly-respected career that began with his first album, Trouble, in 2004.

The line-up of the Pariah Dogs, and their alliance with LaMontagne, is already well-proven and familiar. These musicians — Eric Heywood and Greg Leisz on guitars, Jennifer Condos on bass, and Jay Bellerose on drums — have been working as the singer’s touring band for the last few years, developing into a tight-knit team.

But when LaMontagne called these busy studio musicians together to begin work on his latest effort, it was literally a homecoming for everyone.

“I just bought this old estate in western Massachusetts that belonged to the first US ambassador to Russia,” LaMontagne said. “There’s this beautiful room in the house, that was once a connected barn that was turned into a ballroom in the early 1900s and I felt like it would make a great  place to record.

“It was one of the easiest sessions I’ve ever done — the songs just played themselves,” Bellerose observed. “We were scheduled to record for two weeks, but we were done tracking in five or six days.”

This latest project also marks the first time that LaMontagne has taken on the role of producer.

“You are the last word as producer, but I had so much trust in everybody,” he said. “They all had such a big part in making this record. It felt very comfortable. I trusted them to tell me if things weren’t working, or if things were going in a direction other than what I intended. For me it felt much more relaxed and natural than other records I made in the past.”

Tickets for the May 25 Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs show at The Palace can be purchased through www.PalaceTheaterCT.org.

To check out Manzarek and Rogers, reserve tickets a www.RidgefieldPlayhouse.com.