By Michael Dunn
Photo: Ronnie Lee Hill
CALGARY — Vancouver’s Ben Rogers describes his new album The Bloodred Yonder as “the transition from life to death, good to evil, paradise to perdition, and all the lost souls you meet along the way.” His beyond-his-years voice is rough-hewn and well suited to the tone of his alt-country songs, with expansive reverb-drenched guitars, slinky and deep baritone guitar and pedal steel. Rogers is no one-trick pony though. An accomplished actor, he’s also appeared recently on CBC’s Strange Empire, as well as playing a supporting role in The Driftless Area, starring Zooey Deschanel and Anton Yelchin. His crack band includes members of City and Colour, Rich Hope and His Evildoers, Portage & Main and Frazey Ford. The band conjures a sound likened to Crazy Horse playing in a honky-tonk roadhouse, a sound as cosmic as it is down-to-earth.
Ben Rogers performs in Calgary at Block Heater on February 12th at Festival Hall and on February 13th at the Lantern Church.
BeatRoute Magazine February 2016 Alberta print edition cover.
Photo: Peter Moller
