Brian Chris Rogers

At shows like his packed EP release party in the fall, Brian leads an all-star lineup that bears his name, and his past experience makes band-leader a role that suits him.  From Sunday mornings at church to Saturday nights at festivals such as High Sierra Music Festival, Oregon Country Fair, and his hometown's Sacramento Music Festival, Brian has taken hundreds of crowds as deep into the spirit of music as they can go.  Three years on the road packing clubs and theaters from California to the Rockies with his former band Izabella, earned Brian the opportunity to work with producer/engineer Oz Fritz (who worked on Tom Waits Grammy award winning album Mule Variations) and perform with such great players as Bill Kreutzmann with Grateful Dead, Michael Kang with String Cheese Incident, Dave Brogan and Lebo with Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO), and many others.  Not yet a year old, his own band has grown from a long friendship between Brian and keyboardist Sam Phelps.  In a cover article of Regional Musician Magazine, Brian and Sam were called the "best musicians in the world."  Together they won the best jazz Sammie award four years running, which landed them in the Sammies Hall of Fame.  They even got to perform at Venus Williams' birthday party.  

Brians recent front man role for funk group "The Nibblers," landed him in the 2013 Sammies Hall of Fame.  It also gave him the confidence to assemble his own funk/rock trio (sounding a bit like The Police, RHCP, and fans say even Eminem -- w/out the venom) featuring his buddy Sam and drummer Matt Klee, who also drums in a side project with guitarist Bobby G. of Earth, Wind and Fire.  A major highlight of his band and solo performances is when Brian breaks it all the way down to live looping.  Nevada City venue, Crazy Horse, blogged it best:  "something borderline miraculous happened.  Rogers tapped in to a source of pure creativity and we all get sucked into an elevated dimension of improvisational brilliance.  Before we knew it, he was in command behind the drum kit while his programmed bass loops maintained a deep pocket of groove.  Pulses raced and eyes dilated.  We were in the presence of rare talent."  Additionally, Brian's past drumming for The Toyes (authors of "Smoke Two Joints," made famous by Sublime) has given him the skills and chops to spice some reggae into his band's set, and keep the style real with a rock edge.

With style hybrids reminiscent of Ben Harper, DMB, James Brown and Victor Wooten, Brian's fans repeatedly remark :  "That was the best live show I've ever seen."    After listening front-to-back to his initial release entitled "Dreaming Seed," family member Larry Graham (Hall of Fame & singer of Billboard top ten "One in a Million You") was impressed, and is looking forward to what Brian has in store.  Due to his one-man-band looping chops, perhaps Single is the perfect title for his sophomore effort, produced by bandmate Sam Phelps.  Musically, its a hat-tip to his new solo path.  However, Brian says the title "Single" is autobiographic:  "I found happiness while single, and that lead me to find true love."

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