Roger’s Blog
Podcast #31 – Featuring the Single, THINKING POSITIVE
Please check out the nice review of THINKING POSITIVE by Brenda Lorenz for Beat Atlanta Online Magazine
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Please Be With Me Podcast
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How Black Lives Are Important To Me
Rayshard Brooks Did Not Deserve To Die
Something has to change! This young man who fell asleep in his car and had been drinking should have never ended up dead. While not denying that there are so many potential dangers for the driver and to others, there is no way sleeping in your car or driving while possibly intoxicated should be a death sentence. It appears to me that he was in an alcoholic blackout. He needed help more so than he needed law enforcement, or he at least deserved the chance to have interacted with officers capable of recognizing that fact. Even if he ran away with a taser… So what!! They had his address so he would eventually be located. While talking to the police in the video, he kept telling the officers that he was about 15 or so miles away in another town. He was convinced of that. Being a recovering alcoholic for close to 37 years (One day at a time), I know the scenario. It is entirely possible that Rayshard Brooks, had his life been spared, would wake up not remembering any of what happened. He could have then been presented with some available life choices moving forward. Whether or not he would be willing to listen or to choose any of those recommendations wouldn’t be up to any of us, but at least he would be alive to decide for himself, and would also be around for his little girl’s birthday this weekend. I, along with millions of others, would have been willing to sit and tell this young man our stories of how we found a way out, as many did for me back in 1983, as well as a New York City Wall Street executive did for an Akron medical doctor back in 1935… 85 years ago this week. That is another story (Google it if you don’t know), so there’s that. This is a systemic problem that needs immediate attention. Immediate means NOW!
Podcast #30 – Please Be With Me
Podcast #30 – Please Be With Me
This song was originally recorded by the group, Cowboy, of Macon, Georgia’s Capricorn Records. Cowboy consisted of Scott Boyer and Tommy Talton.Their version featured a guest appearance by the late Duane Allman on dobro, which was also released on the first Duane Allman: An Anthology in 1972. The song was also released in 1975 by Eric Clapton on his 461 OCEAN BOULEVARD album. Boyer and Talton were also two of the musicians appearing on Gregg Allman’s LAID BACK album, and were part of the band later on for the Gregg Allman Tour, and are featured on the live album of the same name.
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A SIMPLE QUESTION
In speaking to the service writer at Day Chevrolet in Acworth, GA, he tells me me that they would need to diagnose the problem to see if it is the lock or the actuator that is faulty. Why would that matter if both parts are one unit? If the door lock isn’t working, and the remedy is to make the repair with the one part that serves two functions, why the extra wasted conversation?
What could have been a simple answer in saying that the unit would need to be replaced because it all is the same part would have been sufficient. With his useless diagnostic answer. Instead of a satisfactory simple answer, I now have more questions. Does that mean you are going to fix the bad section of the single part and charge me less, or are you going to waste my time, and probably charge more money in running a bogus diagnosis? Or is the one part really two parts and you don’t really know what you are talking about?
He then said there would be twenty cars ahead of me, and that if I left the vehicle, he might have it done by the same time a day later. That was an understandable option. The cost to install the part; however, would be $150.00. In that case, I bought the part for $165.00 at the dealership, with the nice parts guy giving me a discount. I then went to my buddy, Doug, at G&S in Kennesaw, GA. He had me in and out in under two hours for $90.00, and he didn’t have to diagnose anything.
Feature by Shawn Poole of Backstreets.com (February 11, 2020)
Shawn Poole to The Wild & The Innocent with Jim Rotolo
February 11 at 1:29 AM
THE MAN’S JUST BOPPIN’ THE BLUES: Today is National Get Out Your Guitar Day here in the U.S. Not a bad day for such a celebration, especially since this day also marks the births of folk/blues guitarist-singer-songwriter-activist Josh White, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gene Vincent, and modern-day guitar-slinger Sheryl Crow.
It’s a perfect day, as well, to inform y’all about a unique guitar-slinging buddy of mine named Roger “Hurricane” Wilson, if you don’t happen to know about him already. Roger is a fellow longtime Springsteen fan who also is a musician himself, performing and teaching in the grand blues tradition. He spent his childhood years in New Jersey and much of his teenage years in Georgia, with summertime returns to the Garden State. The first time he saw Bruce Springsteen perform was in 1971, when Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom opened for The Allman Brothers at The Sunshine In. You can read Roger’s personal account of the experience and its lasting impact here:
http://hurricanewilson.com/the-amazing-impact-of-bruce-spr…/
That account is actually an earlier drafted version of what later became a chapter in his memoir HURRICANE, which can be purchased here:
http://hurricanewilson.com/products/the-book-hurricane/
Both Springsteen and the Allmans were major influences on Roger’s decision to pursue a musical career of his own, as well as on the kind of music he would play. For over four decades now, Roger Wilson has played and taught blues guitar. He’s shared stages with legends like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jorma Kaukonen and Charlie Musselwhite. The late, great Les Paul once said of Roger, “This guy plays some great blues.”
One of the coolest things about Roger is that he has found a way to record, perform and share with the world whatever music he chooses, whenever he wants to do it. He controls his own online-based record-label, Bluestorm Records, and issues his own home-recorded albums and singles at a steady, prolific clip. He’s not beholden to anyone else but himself in regards to what he wants to say or play and when he wants to do it. In a line of work that’s changed so much during his lifetime, he’s managed to remain a professional, working musician and a productive artist while maintaining a stable, happy home in Georgia with his family. It may not be international pop-superstar success, but it is success nevertheless for someone like Roger who loves, lives and breathes music every day.
Roger’s recent releases include the tribute album ROGER “HURRICANE” WILSON COVERS THE BOSS!
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/rogerhurricanewilson130
My hands-down favorite from this ten-track set is his version of “Gypsy Biker,” but it is on his latest full-length release, I DID WHAT I WANTED TO,
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/rogerhurricanewilson25
where I think Roger gets to display fully all of his skills as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He wrote ten of the twelve songs on this set, including the title track, which sums up his life and the outlook he continues to maintain, now that he’s well into his sixties. Lots of tasty, bluesy guitar work here, too, and a great cover of “Food, Phone, Gas & Lodging,” originally recorded by the undeservedly obscure 1970s Southern-rock band Eric Quincy Tate, another major influence on Roger’s own music. (“I knew them since I was 16. They played my senior-prom in ’72. There’s a whole chapter on them in my book,” he recently informed me.)
One of his latest digital singles, released just last month, is “OK Millennial,”
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/rogerhurricanewilson134
his crusty, cranky, and at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek response to the whole “OK Boomer” thing. To me, as a Gen-X’er caught in the middle of this particular divide, it feels a little too mean-spirited and reverse-ageist for my tastes, but to each… (and as I noted above, one of Roger’s most admirable qualities is his unabashed usage of the freedom to speak his mind.) On the other hand, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the other digital single he released in late January: a beautiful cover of Gordon Lightfoot’s classic “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald,”
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/rogerhurricanewilson135
the moving true-story ballad that makes for perfect wintertime blues in Roger Wilson’s skilled guitar-wielding hands.
Since 2003, Roger also has been delivering his “Blues In The Schools” presentations in schools, colleges, libraries, community centers and music festivals across the country. He regularly reaches and engages many young minds with an entertaining history of the blues combined with his own musical performances. In 2015, Roger was inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame in recognition of his “Blues In The Schools” work in that state. His more recent encounters with Steve Van Zandt and the experience of attending several of the TeachRock.org workshops held on Little Steven’s tours with the Disciples of Soul have helped to revitalize and enhance Roger’s school presentations, as can be seen in the attached photos. You can read more about Roger’s “Blues In The Schools” program here:
http://rogerwilsonguitarstudio.com/www-beginnerguitarles…/…/
To learn more about and keep up with Roger Wilson’s many ongoing projects, his live-performance schedule, his many other released recordings and/or how to get “Blues In The Schools” at your school or community center, visit HurricaneWilson.com. Oh, and one other thing I know for sure – whenever and wherever my pal Roger Wilson is, it’s ALWAYS National Get Out Your Guitar Day.
CD Review by Vicente Zumel of La Hora del Blues in Barcelona, Spain
Roger ‘Hurricane’ Wilson “I Did What I Wanted To!”. Bluestorm 2019.
After fifty years as a professional musician, singer and guitar player Roger “Hurricane” Wilson releases his album number 25, “I Did What I Wanted To!”. The title tells everything about his attitude in front of the music world. The opinion of people or media has never been a decisive one to choose, perform and record the extensive repertoire he has performed over the years. He always selects the music he feels at that particular moment and his faithful audience and followers have understood his attitude and they have always made him know, so he has not need to change his attitude to play the music he feels in every show or recording. All this has allowed him to create and develop a particular style and put his own stamp into the complex blues world. The album includes twelve songs that are a mixture of blues rock, some finger guitar picking and a passionate composition, which clearly show Roger’s passion for blues and honest attitude, which has made him reach a well-deserved reputation thanks to his endless work, that has allowed him to tour all over the world, as well as share stage with such great artists like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Little Milton, Hubert Sumlin, Charlie Musselwhite or Taj Mahal among others. VERY GOOD. Click Here To Purchase
Podcast 29- OK Millennial

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New Single by Roger “Hurricane” Wilson
Excited to announce the immediate release of the single on
Bluestorm Records by Roger “Hurricane” Wilson,
OK MILLENNIAL!, a message to millennials from the boomer generation.
Take a listen here: http://store.cdbaby.com/cd/rogerhurricanewilson134
It is also available as an MP3 for $.99 at that link.
Thanks for any and all support!