The Red Rogue

Alt-Country From the City

The Red Rogue hails from Staten Island, but at least one or two of the Rogues are originally from the area and their toe tappin', knee slappin', foot stompin', hand clappin' country tunes are sure to put a smile on your face.

The lead vocalist (who I'm almost positive is Tim Cushing) has a charming baritone voice and when he reaches up for the higher registers it becomes a little more unpolished, but for all us who prefer home recordings for their honesty and faults, it is perfectly unperfect in the line of Langhorne Slim. Their instrumentation fills up the whole audio spectrum with a jug-band type thump bass, 16th notes flying off the mandolin strings, and Carolyn's accordian which can add to the driving tempo of the song as it does in "Flight" or float along melodically with the vocals like it does in "Have Not". From the pictures I've seen it seems that Billy Jock plays a make-shift drum kit consisting of a snare and tambourine with his hands, though he may also use sticks sometime as well.

I am absolutely ecstatic to see these guys live. There's an awesome video on their myspace thats clips from their shows with people dosey-doh-ing arm in arm, and then Evan Jagles comes down and joins them with his mandolin and the mayhem only amplifies.

They were recommended to me by a co-worked after he came out to see a Dunbar show. Most music recommendations coming from outside of my small circle of friends usually don't pan out very well, but this one was a direct hit and was a welcome blast of new music that has sunk in deep enough to effect my own songwriting.

They'll be in Troy at the Kismet Gallery on April 27th and I am counting the days. Just today I've also asked them to come back on or around May 12th for a tentative show at the Capital District Federation of Ideas and have my fingers crossed. Keep checking their myspace to see where they'll be and when.

I would like to write a lot more about them, but 1. i have time constraints right now, and 2. there's a very limited number of songs of theirs availabe to listen to. You can listen to them on their myspace (no downloads) but you can download three of the from their Sonic Bids Electronic Press Kit, under the Media tab. Word on the street is they've recorded a 5 song EP, but I have yet to get my hands on it. So for now, listen to the mp3s and see them in Troy on April 27th (and hopefully again in Albany on May 12th) and warm up your thawing winter feet with some tunes you can't help but jump around to.


The Red Rogue MySpace
www.myspace.com/theredrogue

SonicBids Electronic Press Kit (you can download songs here)
www.sonicbids.com/theredrogue


mp3: This Is the Last Time

mp3: Flight

mp3: Help Out