Sunday March 28, 1999
WJFF 1999 Spring Folk Benefit Program notes by Angela Page

"My wife raises thoroughbred horses, this is for her"
"Watching an elderly couple in a pancake house my dad's parents came to mind"
"...massive cutbacks in passenger rail service..."
"...I imagined the little child in the song sitting up in bed..."
"Phil Ochs was one of my earliest heroes...."

With liner notes such as these from one of his seven CD's you may be drawn into a song of Garnet Rogers. In person, you may think that it is his 6 1/2 foot presence that takes your breath away, but its not, it is his heart. Garnet plays violin, flute and guitar and although he has plenty of reason to be snobby about his talent, he isn't. Garnet is human and caring, on stage and off. In January '78, I booked his first US performance and I have seen him many times since. The sincerity and honesty and just plain nice guy you will see on stage is truly Garnet.

Maybe it is an oxymoron, but his act is natural. He lures us all so effortlessly that I think, perhaps what makes it appear so easy is simply his love of making his living this way. WJFF is incredibly fortunate to have Canada's Garnet Rogers for its 7th Folk Benefit. Garnet has a great voice. Period. His performances are magic. Garnet has an incredibly relaxed stage manner with the ability to swing the mood of a room with a calculated phrase or the delayed electric sound of his unique guitar style. Knowing a good song when he hears one, he may launch into a Rod MacDonald tune, or one by Lui Collins and make them seem as if he wrote every word himself. In his own writing he has that knack of being personal and universal. On a recent Internet list of North American DJ's, someone asked if he just wasn't the best act currently anywhere on the folk scene.

Besides singing the tunes of others, he supports other groups. Modabo and Mustard's Retreat come to mind immediately as two groups enriched by Garnet's influences and support. We too will be enriched, and blessed to hear one of Canada's finest folk musicians. On one CD, Garnet says that most of the selections "were written behind the wheel of my car... between Rochester and Albany... as if this area was a sacred Folksingers Burial Ground."