Customer Reviews

Night Drive

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...after reading some other reviews of Garnet and Stan Rogers' music, I was quickly reminded of a phone conversation I'd had with their mother some years ago. I was working at a radio station in Massachusetts and we'd gotten a copy of "Night Drive." I'd not been able to find it in the Boston area (all 50 copies HMV had went like that!), and the number I had was to their home.

Really nice lady...now, this recording, which I finally did get my hands on a short time later is a great example of Garnet's versatility. There's folk tunes, "Seeds of Hope," with David Tamulevich's backing vocals is a wonderful song, and the cover of Greg Brown's "Jesus and Elvis" is excellent.

A couple of ballsy rock tunes as well, "Never So Lonely," which takes a hard look at domestic violence and "Colliertown" rips the coal industry for a mine disaster.

There's a lot of songs of life in the recordings, and they are simple and direct. The 10+ minute title track ends the album beautifully.

I listen to this fairly often, and I always take it when I'm on the road, "Night Drive" or not.

If you're a folkie or just like plain good singer/songwriter music, buy this CD.

The first time I saw Garnet Rogers on his own was slightly after the recording of this CD. I had toddler twins at home, and was a member of the local folk club where he was playing. This was in the back room of a most excellent Mexican Restaurant in the DC area, The Tortilla Factory.

Garnet, as always, blew me away. His performance was incredible, he was funny and gracious, and he held my heart with his beautiful songs, both his own and the ones he found and picked. On this album, the song "Seeds of Hope" became a favorite of my children (I learned to play it soon after that, since I bought the CD at the concert), and as I understand, it has found its way into a few hymnals. "Love's Been Linked to the Blues", a rather hilarious David Olney song, stood out, and so did "Jesus and Elvis", written by his good friend Greg Brown, and the heartrending "Colliertown, and "Phone Booth", which deals with a failed abusive relationship from the ABUSER'S point of view, where the man knows he's done wrong but can't let go.

I thought I was knocked flat until he pulled out the old Strat for his last number. Night Drive is at once an elegy and tribute to Garnet's late elder brother Stan, well-known Canadian Folk music legend. Even then, over ten years after the tragedy that took him early from us, Garnet was still dealing, and had used this song to help him through the catharsis and share it. I wept. The lines "I love you more after all this time/ I wish I'd shown you better" hit a painful note in all of us who've suffered loss -- and who hasn't?

Today, over 10 years after the release of the song, Garnet sings it differently, perhaps having moved on with the grief to celebrating his brother's life and brilliance. Last time I saw him, earlier this year, he was playing "Northwest Passage" with it, Stan's classic, and, as he always does, his performance took my breath away.

This is what Garnet calls "loud folk". It stirs the heart and soul, it makes you think, and laugh, and cry. This is art, own it. You will not regret your purchase.

The song prevented me from leaving my car. I had to find out who it was. Then I had to wait to get it in the mail. Now, my wife and I listen to Night Ride, mezmerized, over and over. I can't get tired of it. Amazing stuff