Pastime by Roger "Hurricane" Wilson

As his teacher taught him individual notes week after week, Roger was still inclined to find cool sounds coming out when the strings were struck together as chords. This music thing sure appeared to come quite easily, and naturally. Although the teacher would have preferred Roger give priority to his assigned lessons, they tended to take a back seat. The teacher, a mild-mannered white gentleman with horned rimmed glasses and winged tipped shoes, just didn’t seem to understand. Later on, Roger started taking trumpet lessons in order to join the elementary school marching band, and tolerated them while in reality, all he wanted to do was play the drums. He later saved up to buy his own drum paraphernalia, and started wood shedding that too. On one special parade day in Red Bank, NJ, and the school band drummers didn't show up. The band director handed a snare drum to Roger, and said "this is your shot"! He received a special award on the last day of school in front of the whole student body for saving the day.

The next year, in February of 1964, Roger was in front of the TV on Sunday night when the Beatles made their American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. Being an only child, he was unaware of the curve ball being thrown at American kids everywhere. All he noticed, other than the screaming girls, was that there were THREE guitars on the stage, and one was being played BACKWARDS! The next day, all of the kids were acting crazy! They were combing their hair down in front, and some had these wild looking pointed boots; and they were all playing air guitar! Roger had already been playing guitar, and making his teacher mad for well over a year. Next to the Kennedy assassination during the previous November, this was pretty traumatic. Next, Roger got his first electric guitar, and the next couple of years were spent playing, or attempting to play music in various garage bands by The Kinks, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, The Animals, Paul Revere & The Raiders, while of course trying to match the lead licks of "Louie, Louie" and "Hang On Sloopy". Ironically, most of that music was remakes of old blue tunes, or at least pop songs influenced by the blues.

In 1967, upon graduating from grammar school, the little Jersey shore town didn't have their own high school. The surrounding townships were bussing kids wherever they could fit them in. Roger's parents thought it best to place him in a more positive environment. They sent him to a private prep school in Atlanta. The "bubble-gum" music era was in full swing, and after being subjected to "Monkees" TV show for the last year or two, Roger found it quite nauseating. While in Georgia, the 14 year old became addicted and taken in by the music of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Eddie Floyd, and Booker T. & The MG's. The Memphis sound and feel started unknowingly planting its obsession. Roger, of course was immediately drafted by the school band to play trumpet, but the band director would occasionally let him replace undependable drummers. 1968 showed up when Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Janis Joplin, and "psychedelic" music, referred to then as "underground" music, raised its sleeping head.

B.B. King's "The Thrill is Gone" hit the airwaves, and according to Roger, "there was something going on". The single lead, vibrato notes pioneered by B.B. were essentially drawing him in. He bore down on the guitar, and learned as much as he could about the music, and the artists that made it. When meeting B.B. King in later years, he explained to the blues king what had happened.

1970 had Roger making weekly pilgrimages to Atlanta's Piedmont Park to hear bands, mainly The Allman Brothers Band. Not much was remembered in detail until the night of June 16, 1971, when The Brothers played their first sold out show in Atlanta's Municipal Auditorium. The 17 year old stood 6 feet away from Duane Allman, and was completely swept off of his feet. After years of guitar lessons, a knee-high stack of guitar books and sheet music, the boy was never the same! The slide guitar playing that night in itself was another force to be reckoned with. In the days that followed, he was haunted by what he had seen and heard. Roger began wearing out Allman Brothers Band albums trying to capture that sound. His next reaction was, "the hell with everything else"! All he wanted to do now was play as well as he could.

During his senior year in high school, he was bestowed the title of drum major in the high school marching band. On October 29, 1971, Roger was conducting the school band through the national anthem on the field at a football game. After the game, he heard the radio report of Duane Allman's death in a motorcycle accident in Macon - another trauma in addition to JFK's assassination, The Beatles, and the death of his grandfather in '67. He immediately started bearing down on the music even harder. When the Duane Allan "Anthology" came out in late 1972, the enclosed literature spoke of how Duane's eyes used to light up at the mention of Robert Johnson. Who was that? Thus began the search for the origins of the music that made all of this happen. Robert Johnson, Willie McTell, and Elmore James albums were only the scratching of the surface for this musically consumed 19 year old.

After a year back in New Jersey following high school, Roger headed back to Georgia in 1973, determined to play guitar. He got a job teaching in a private studio, and eventually took it over as his own business. In addition, Roger also landed a position at Georgia State University’s radio station, WRAS in order to immerse himself in the music business. Success came about by teaching people what THEY wanted to learn. He named his business "The Roger Wilson Guitar Studio", and he soon had an extensive waiting list of students wanting to learn how to have fun with the instrument, as opposed to suffering with it. In late 1974, Roger also took a position as weekend disc-jockey with 50,000 watt WGUN-AM in Decatur, GA. The format here was white gospel in the morning, and black gospel in the afternoon. This would be the foundation for his recording experience, as well as many live performances. With his teaching business up and running, and enjoying the occasional gospel performances, but being fed up with playing with mediocre bands, he started the "Roger Wilson Band" in 1978. If the name worked for the studio, why not a band? It did! He went from the garage to opening shows for people like Stillwater, Albert Collins, 38 Special, and various Skynyrd spin-off bands. Roger says he mostly enjoyed working with a very young Johnny van Zant, now lead singer for Lynyrd Skynyrd, on numerous occasions. A jam with Stevie Ray Vaughn at a now defunct club in 1980, along with a two and a half hour jam with Albert Collins in 1979 at Atlanta's Agora Ballroom are 2 of Roger's highlighted memories. These along with a close friendship formed with guitarist Roy Buchanan make for book material alone. The RWB lasted until 1983. Still not quite at home with the other band members' visions, he made some personal changes in 1983. Raising a family became a priority as his first son, Roger, Jr, was born in late 1984. Later realizing that he still wanted to play guitar, but on his own terms, he formed a 3 piece unit called "Roger Wilson & The Low Overhead Band." This act was simple, cheap, and easy to move. With this act up and running, Roger did shows with Dickey Betts, Little Feat, Three Dog Night, Leon Russell & Edgar Winter, Marshall Tucker Band, Roomful of Blues, and was starting to regain momentum. That, along with extensive freelance broadcasting work, kept Roger quite busy. In 1986, a fulltime position at CNN in Atlanta made itself available. The hand in hand broadcasting and music endeavor was still in full swing. Although limited on how far he could travel, Roger exausted as many regional markets as he could, using every minute of yearly vacation time to venture further out into new territory. This still added up to close to 200 dates a year while maintaining a fulltime job. Between work, music, and the arrival of his second son, Ryan, in 1987, time management remained quite a critical issue. While on a northeast tour in 1993, it came to the attention of Roger's bass player, and soon to be producer that people were screwing up his name. After a disc jockey virtually butchered it during a North Carolina radio interview, with the name in BOLD LETTERS in front of him, that was it! Hottrax Records producer, Aleck Janoulis, said you need a "moniker", something for people to remember you by. He also noted that Roger had a habit of going into a town, virtually making a mess with the music, and then leaving early in the morning to go back to work. This, along with the childhood hurricane experience, led to the stage name, Roger "Hurricane" Wilson. It became official at the next show in Washington, DC. It was determined that you could forget his name, but no one would forget "Hurricane". Since then, there have been shows and festivals with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Mayall, Little Milton, and Marcia Ball, to name just a few.

The first CD, "Hurricane Blues", released in 1994 on Hottrax Records, has received airplay on well over 200 stations across the U.S., and is being distributed nationally. The second Hottrax project, "Live From The Eye Of The Storm", was released in 1996, and enjoyed the same, if not better response than "Hurricane Blues". That CD came out at the precise time that Roger’s CNN career would come to and end after 10 years as a result of downsizing. He left work that day after cleaning out his desk, went to the gig, and never looked back. In addition to playing between 250 and 300 nights a year, Roger also produced and hosted his own syndicated radio show on nearly 10 stations around the country.

In 1997, Roger decided that it was time to step to the next level. At the advice of his distributor, he decided to form his own record company, Bluestorm Records. This venture gave rise to the third CD, “The Business of The Blues”. The title track was written about the daily challenges of daily life on the road. Also featured on this CD are 5 acoustic tunes, which started to establish Roger’s acoustic work, which has become a separate entity, and occasional combination with his electric sound. Guest appearances by Francene Reed and Chicago Bob Nelson rounded out the project. The fourth CD is called “Live At The Stanhope House”, recorded at that legendary blues club in New Jersey. A fifth effort, all solo acoustic, “Pastime” has received critical acclaim, and a forthcoming release called “The Ohio Connection” is due out in mid June, 2004, as Wilson continues to cement his reputation as one of the premier blues musicians from the South. Legendary guitarist Les Paul lavished praise on Wilson’s playing after trading licks onstage in New York City saying, “That’s some great blues”. Spending more days each year playing live concerts than not has earned Wilson a devoted and ever-expanding following. In fact, the amount of time he spends on the road prompted Highways Magazine to note the over 250,000 miles Wilson has driven his motorhome to concerts! And the miles keep on accruing.

Roger “Hurricane” Wilson Discography.

The Way I Am (2006) The Ohio Connection (2004) Pastime (2002), Live At The Stanhope House (2001) and The Business of the Blues (1998) were released on Blue Storm Records while From the Eye of the Storm (1996) and Hurricane Blues (1994) were released on Hottrax Records

Contact Information:

Roger "Hurricane “ Wilson

P. O. Box 1212,

Kennesaw, GA 30156

Tel: 678-296-9850

Website : www.hurricanewilson.com

Myspace: www.myspace.com/rogerhurricane

www.myspace.com/rogerhurricanewilsontheacousticside

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