| Name | Stan Rogers |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Stanley Allison Rogers |
| Born | November 29, 1949 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | June 02, 1983 (age 33 on Air Canada Flight 797) Hebron, Kentucky, United States |
| Genre | Folk |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
| Associated acts | Garnet Rogers, Nathan Rogers |
| Years active | 1970–1983 |
| Label | RCA, Fogarty's Cove, Borealis |
| Url | fogartyscovemusic.skyrocketlabs.com |
Stanley Allison "Stan" Rogers (November 29, 1949 – June 2, 1983) was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter.
Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his finely crafted, traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and the daily lives of working people, especially those from the fishing villages of the Maritime provinces and, later, the farms of the Canadian prairies and Great Lakes. Rogers died in a fire aboard Air Canada Flight 797 on the ground at the Greater Cincinnati Airport at the age of only 33. His influence on Canadian folk music has been deep and lasting.
By the time that Rogers was attending Saltfleet High School in Stoney Creek, he started to meet other young people interested in folk music, although at this time he was also dabbling in rock and roll, singing and playing bass guitar in garage bands such as "Stanley and the Living Stones" and "The Hobbits".
As a young man, Rogers briefly attended both McMaster University and Trent University.
Rogers' songs often had a Celtic feel which was due, in part, to his frequent use of DADGAD guitar tuning. He regularly used the 12-string guitar in performance. His best known pieces include "Northwest Passage" , "Barrett's Privateers", "The Mary Ellen Carter", "Make and Break Harbour", "The Idiot", "The Field Behind the Plow", "Lies", "Fogarty's Cove", "White Squall", and "Forty-Five Years".
Smoke was filling the cabin from an unknown source, and once on the ground, the plane's doors were opened to allow passengers to escape. Halfway through the evacuation of the plane, the oxygen rushing in from outside caused a flash fire. Rogers was one of the passengers still on the plane at the time of the fire. Eyewitness reports published at the time said that a man of Rogers' height and build escaped the plane, but then turned and went back inside, apparently to assist in the rescue of others.
His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia.
His widow, Ariel, continues to oversee his estate and legacy. His music and lyrics have been featured in numerous written publications and films. For instance, his lyrics have appeared in school poetry books, taking their place alongside acknowledged classics. His song "Northwest Passage" was featured in the last episode of the TV show Due South, his songs "Barrett's Privateers" and "Watching the Apples Grow" having been previously featured. Barrett's Privateers has also been used extensively in promotion ads for Alexander Keith's ale. In the 2005 CTV made-for-TV movie on the life of Terry Fox, Rogers' "Turnaround" is the music over the closing shot. As the movie ends, Fox is depicted, alone, striding up a hill, while the lyric "And yours was the open road. The bitter song / The heavy load that I'll never share, tho' the offer's still there / Every time you turn around," forges a link between these Canadian icons. Many of his songs on the albums Northwest Passage and From Fresh Water refer to events in Canadian history.
Adrienne Clarkson, who, prior to serving as the Governor General of Canada from 1999 to 2005, had worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, highlighted Rogers' career in a 1989 television documentary called One Warm Line on CBC Television; she also quoted Rogers in her investitural address.
When CBC's Peter Gzowski asked Canadians to pick an alternate national anthem, "Northwest Passage" was the overwhelming choice.
The Stan Rogers Folk Festival is held every year in Canso, Nova Scotia. In 1995, several artists performed two nights of concerts at Halifax's Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, which were released on album that year as Remembering Stan Rogers.
Rogers is also a lasting fixture of the Canadian folk festival Summerfolk, held annually in Owen Sound, Ontario, where the main stage and amphitheater are dedicated as the "Stan Rogers Memorial Canopy". The festival is firmly fixed in tradition, with Rogers` song The Mary Ellen Carter, being sung by all involved, including the audience and a medley of acts at the festival.
At The Canmore Folk Festival, Alberta's longest running folk music festival, performers take to the Stan Rogers Memorial Stage, which is the festival's main stage.
One of Stan's sons, Nathan Rogers, is also an established Canadian folk artist with a voice similar to his father's.
In 1976, Rogers recorded and released his debut album, "Fogarty's Cove", on Barnswallow Records. The album's subject matter dealt almost entirely with life in maritime Canada, and was an immediate success. Rogers then formed Fogarty's Cove Music, and bought Barnswallow, allowing him the luxury of releasing his own albums. Posthumously, additional albums were released.
Category:1949 births Category:1983 deaths Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian people of English descent Category:Musicians from Nova Scotia Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:People from Guysborough County, Nova Scotia Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Category:Trent University alumni Category:Deaths by smoke inhalation Category:Maritime music Category:Accidental deaths in Kentucky Category:People from Dundas, Ontario Category:Canadian singer-songwriters
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