ROGER KENASTON
Gospel Guitar
Just a Closer Walk With Thee – When The Roll
Is Called – Old Rugged Cross – I’ll Fly Away – Softly and Tenderly –
Uncloudy Day – It Is No Secret – Never Grow Old – Amazing Grace – In The
Garden – What A Friend – How Great Thou Art
Is Called – Old Rugged Cross – I’ll Fly Away – Softly and Tenderly –
Uncloudy Day – It Is No Secret – Never Grow Old – Amazing Grace – In The
Garden – What A Friend – How Great Thou Art
I just returned from the Wahoo, Nebraska, Country Music
Festival, which by all standards in the music business today, is truly a
very ‘real’ country music gathering. It is produced and directed by
Roger & Sharon Kenaston, pioneers of a sort who keep country music
‘country.’ Their ‘roots’ go far back into the prairie known as the Sand
Hills of Nebraska where their families homesteaded and claimed the
land, and Roger the songs and music that made life more liveable and
happier during those hard years of making the soil theirs. Roger took
up playing the guitar when he was just a boy, and now these many years
later he is without a doubt one of the best guitarists in the entire
upper Midwest. He plays by ear, which means what he expresses using
those six strings of an acoustic musical instrument, is what he feels in
his mind, in his heart, in his hands and fingers. His wife Sharon
joins him on bass and rhythm guitar on this remarkable CD they recorded
for Roger’s mother Arvilla. They performed some of the songs on this CD
at their recent festival, and I noticed there was not a dry eye in the
entire large audience that listened, including myself. Roger is able to
not only capture the ‘power’ of the melody line of these songs, he adds
his own very real personality to the ‘expression’ of those melody
lines. His “How Great Thou Art” is without a doubt an incredibly moving
piece of music. I have to say, as I listen to this remarkable
presentation, that Roger Kenaston has taken the simple and beautiful
rural gospel songs of the past to a symphonic level similar to the more
popular classical music of the ages. Not only worth listening to, but
well worth ‘remembering’ the wonderful rural traditions and musical
heritage of our great prairie lands. Today, with the
contemporary-country music ‘business’ obviously attempting to eliminate
the ‘real’ country music of the great plains of America, this single CD
will stand the test of time long after the demise of today’s so-called
‘country’ music. We are already arranging a special old-time gospel
program featuring this gifted guitarist at the ‘National Old Time
Country Music Festival’ in early September in LeMars, Iowa. This CD is
also obviously going to the Rural Roots Music Commission.
Festival, which by all standards in the music business today, is truly a
very ‘real’ country music gathering. It is produced and directed by
Roger & Sharon Kenaston, pioneers of a sort who keep country music
‘country.’ Their ‘roots’ go far back into the prairie known as the Sand
Hills of Nebraska where their families homesteaded and claimed the
land, and Roger the songs and music that made life more liveable and
happier during those hard years of making the soil theirs. Roger took
up playing the guitar when he was just a boy, and now these many years
later he is without a doubt one of the best guitarists in the entire
upper Midwest. He plays by ear, which means what he expresses using
those six strings of an acoustic musical instrument, is what he feels in
his mind, in his heart, in his hands and fingers. His wife Sharon
joins him on bass and rhythm guitar on this remarkable CD they recorded
for Roger’s mother Arvilla. They performed some of the songs on this CD
at their recent festival, and I noticed there was not a dry eye in the
entire large audience that listened, including myself. Roger is able to
not only capture the ‘power’ of the melody line of these songs, he adds
his own very real personality to the ‘expression’ of those melody
lines. His “How Great Thou Art” is without a doubt an incredibly moving
piece of music. I have to say, as I listen to this remarkable
presentation, that Roger Kenaston has taken the simple and beautiful
rural gospel songs of the past to a symphonic level similar to the more
popular classical music of the ages. Not only worth listening to, but
well worth ‘remembering’ the wonderful rural traditions and musical
heritage of our great prairie lands. Today, with the
contemporary-country music ‘business’ obviously attempting to eliminate
the ‘real’ country music of the great plains of America, this single CD
will stand the test of time long after the demise of today’s so-called
‘country’ music. We are already arranging a special old-time gospel
program featuring this gifted guitarist at the ‘National Old Time
Country Music Festival’ in early September in LeMars, Iowa. This CD is
also obviously going to the Rural Roots Music Commission.
RECORD REVIEW BY BOB EVERHART – www.ntcma.net
for Country Music News International Magazine