Jakki Rogue

April 14, 2005 - The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, NS.

SPOTLIGHT

Rogue songs get debut at Stayner's
NIGHTCLUB NOTEBOOK-STEPHEN COOK
Pictou County singer-songwriter Jakki Rogue likes a good challenge. Her new CD "Take a Look at This", which she launches Saturday night at Stayner's Wharf at 9:30 p.m., contains several songs that arose out of life's struggles, and are given a contemporary folk spin through Rogue's warm, consoling vocals and flowing melodies.
Right off the bat, the record starts with Mama, an ode to her mother Ilona who fled her native Latvia for Canada in the wake of the Second World War. The song helped Rogue put her mother's life, as a musician and teacher, in perspective, and also helped her cope with Ilona's passing. "I just felt like I had to find some kind of positive solution," says Rogue. "That's what I always do, I write to work through stuff and find the good things about them. I don't write about other people's situations, because I don't really know them that well." "Some people can do it very well, but I just write about what happens to me. I like the way Mama turned out, it's not too personal, it's a very universal theme, saying a lot about what our parents have to leave us."
Rogue learned a lot about the ways of her ancestors when she initially moved to Nova Scotia in the '70s to get back to the land with then-partner Jim Wood. They ran a sawmill in Bear River and operated a woodlot, living off the garden with no power or running water. "I have a pretty good picture in my head of what the pioneers went through, I know exactly what it was like", says Rogue. "Well, maybe not exactly, because I could always refer back to the 20th century, but I understood their day to day lives."
"We started making music to pass the time and entertain ourselves, with no agenda, but that grew into the band Little Smoke, and we went out on the road and did some recordings with Karl Falkenham at CBC Radio." For Rogue's current recording, she garnered contributions from an illustrious list including producer Rick Edgett, drummer Don Chapman, bassist Jamie Gatti, Cathy Porter and fellow Pictou County talents Dave Gunning and George Canyon. "I knew George when he was still performing as Fred Lays, and his father used to teach me how to do turns in swimming," she laughs.


- HALIFAX CHRONICLE HERALD

It's been decades in the making but Hopewell songstress Jakki Rogue has released her first full-length, solo disc.

BY : KEVIN ADSHADE - THE EVENING NEWS

It's never too late to make an old dream happen. After three decades as a professional musician, Jakki Rogue has released her first full-length solo CD. "Some dreams take a long time to percolate," she says. "Half the battle with dreams for people, is figuring what they want."
"Take a Look at This" is the result of what the Hopewell resident calls many years developing her craft as a songwriter and as a performer. "I write about my relationship with the world, and they are usually based on real-life relationships," says Rogue, who describes her music as predominantly folk with shades of blues and pop thrown in.
A musical fixture in Pictou County, Rogue is originally from Red Lake, in northwestern Ontario. Her grandmother had been a famous classical pianist in Latvia and Germany before moving to Canada, and Rogue (shortened from the Icelandic Rognvaldson) began studying piano at the age of four.
Rogue's mother also earned a Royal Conservatory degree in classical music and was a musician and teacher in her own right. Having studied piano and accordion, Rogue taught herself to play mandolin and guitar and began writing songs by the time she turned 16.
A few years later, in the 1970's, she came to Nova Scotia at a time when she and scores of other young people saw the Canadian east coast as an opportunity to get "back to the land" and lead a simpler life. The music stayed with her, and she stayed here, now calling Pictou County home.
Over the years, thought her solo work and as a member of the country-rock outfit Little Smoke, Rogue has met and performed with artists such as John Prine, Sylvia Tyson, The Mamas and the Papas, Valdy and Jose Feliciano.
In the 1980's she recorded some full-length albums as a member of Little Smoke and made dozens of appearances at folk festivals and other venues.
Then came "Take a Look at This", which features 12 tracks, a couple of them written well over two decades ago. I Still Sing, which features George Canyon on backing vocals, was penned in 1981, while Other Than You was a song that Rogue put together back in the 1970's. And while many other songs on the CD were written in the 1990's, Rogue does not apologize for bringing her own personal favorites out of the vault. "The songs on this album have stood the test of time for me," she said. "A lot of these songs are still very personal...there are worlds between us, meet me on the bridge," she says, quoting from "Take a Look at This", the title cut. "This is a personal mission statement."
She proudly states that I Still Sing caught the ears of Canyon when he showed up one day at Riverfront Studios in New Glasgow, where a portion of the album was recorded under the direction of Dave Gunning. "Those boys really encouraged me. Dave really put his heart and soul into it."
She also did some recording at D.C. Productions in Dartmouth. As a tribute of sorts, Rogue included one cover song on her CD, which she began recording in 2003 Both Sides Now, an early tune from Joni Mitchell, who clearly was an inspiration to Rogue.
Rogue took a stab at getting "a day job" about a year ago, but found that music was still her calling. With it, she tries to maintain a positive view of the world. "It's the thing I've always done, and it's the thing I will always do. I want to make people feel good; I want to show them the good things."
Rogue hopes to hold a CD release party in Pictou County sometime this spring, and has a small release party lined up for April 16th at Stayner's in Halifax, a popular folk and blues venue.
She's already planning for her follow-up CD to "Take a Look at This". The CD is getting some airplay on CKEC and CBC Radio. The CD is available locally at H & R Music, CD Plus at Highland Square Mall and at Sam The Record Man in Halifax.

- March 19, 2005 - Evening News, New Glasgow, NS.

Didn't miss a beat
After a break for family, singer-songwriter returns to music
JAKKI ROGUE
"TAKE A LOOK AT THIS"
BY SANDY MACDONALD



It's been a long and winding road that brought singer-songwriter Jakki Rogue to her new collection of songs.

"I call it life's system of detours," says Rogue, the second best-known singer from Hopewell, Pictou Co. (after George Canyon) Born in northern Ontario, where her Latvian grandfather settled to escape the post-war refugee camps, the singer grew up in St.Catharines (where she shortened her name from Rognvaldson to the saucier and more pronounceable Rogue).

She migrated east in the 1970's, part of the "back-to-the-land" rush. With her partner Jimmi Wood, they found a plot of land, a plow horse and a communal lifestyle that fit the times.

Through the late '70s and '80s, Rogue sang with Wood in the country-rock outfit Little Smoke. She toured through the region, placed a couple of songs on the radio and performed at outdoor festivals and on television. But in the late '80s, Rogue took a break to raise her two children. "Now my kids are grown, and they're old enough that I can pursue my own dreams," says Rogue.

With an aim to rekindle her music career, Rogue compiled several of the songs she's written over the years. Her plan to record that material came into focus two years ago, thanks in part to fellow Pictou county musician Dave Gunning. The busy artist was operating his own Riverfront Studios (co-owned with George Canyon), and Rogue was teaching music lessons in the same building in New Glasgow. "Dave and George were around quite a bit and they'd remembered the Little Smoke albums and encouraged me to get back in the udio."

Gunning recorded a half dozen bed tracks in his studio, but as his own schedule became blocked, Rogue shifted the sessions to Don Chapman's studio in Dartmouth with guitarist Rick Edgett producing. The album covers a wide swath of the music Rogue has performed over the past 25 years, from country-folk to light pop-rock, swinging country and East Coast-flavoured ballads. She covers Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now, slowed down and accompanied by Edgett's acoustic guitar and the rhythm section.

Rogue brings an assured singing voice to the project and the session playing is impressive through the dozen tracks, with contributions from bassist Jamie Gatti, fiddler Ray Legere, drummer Don Chapman and Dave Gunning. Cheryl Edgett, Floyd King and George Canyon chip in with backing vocals.

Some of Rogue's material trips into lyrical cliche. But her optimism shines through, as Rogue rolls up her sleeves to get back to business. "It's a rebirth but it's a continuance. I took a sabbatical and learned how to live." "For me, songwriting has been like music therapy 101. A lot of these songs are quite personal...but I wanted to share what I've learned."

Rogue launches her new disc with a special performance Saturday, April 16, at Stayner's Wharf. Among the guests expected are Dave MacIsaac (guitar and fiddle), Louie Benoit (guitar), Gerry Carruthers (piano) and Cathy Porter (percussion). Showtime is 9:30 p.m. Cover is $3.
- April 14, 2005 - The Daily News, Halifax, NS.