Guy Lochhead, 03/03/12
Also known as Sulaiman Rogers, Rogie was a Sierra Leonean highlife and palm wine fingerstyle guitarist – “The King of Palm Wine”. He began performing in the ’40s, supporting himself as a tailor. In the ’60s he went professional and found some success in England and America, perhaps because of his interest in country music and fusion of Western styles into his music. He spent some time in America in 1973 and moved to London in 1988. Rogie’s guitar sound is sometimes a sort of ghostly, reverby, crystalline tone that goes really well with his voice, but other times it’s unadulterated and relies on his playing. The songs themselves are generally about love. I like this music – particularly the effected guitar stuff – but don’t want to include it because the colonial undertones make me feel weird and because the lyrics can be a bit old-fashioned and sexist.