Musical Bio Installment #1: 

Roger Noyes (pedal steel, electric guitar)

Roger Noyes

"Growing up, a mile from the Canadian border in Northern New York, I pretty much always wanted to play guitar. I spent hours building toy instruments out of scrap wood or cardboard, nails and scraps of wire. Eventually my mother told me she’d buy a real guitar, but only if I took guitar lessons. She said that all of the great guitar players, "like the guitar players in the Rolling Stones," had taken lessons. Though factually inaccurate, her overall point was true: the greatest musicians are learners, and the hard work of becoming a musician requires that you spend hours studying the techniques and styles of others. Helping me along on this path, my guitar teacher Ian McDougall not only showed me the rudiments of guitar playing but he also exposed me to blues greats like Albert King, Albert Collins, Robert Johnson, and Big Bill Broonzy, as well as jazz geniuses like Jim Hall, and others. Twenty years later, I now play a few more string instruments – including pedal steel guitar and bass – in a mix of genres, from Americana to jazz. And I continue to learn from musicians who inspire me. "