Sarah Rogo is Making a Scene

March 25, 2023

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Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Sarah Rogo

Sarah Rogo is an artist, composer, and guitar player residing in Los Angeles, CA. With her haunting and unique slide guitar work, she defies genres and reshapes how the guitar can be used in composition and songwriting. You can find her as one of the hosts of the world famous Normans Rare Guitars channel and sharing the stage with guitar greats such as Joe Bonamassa, Jimmy Vaguan, and Jimmy Vivino. Claiming the title as “Soulful Roots” she blends old blues, soul, and folk styles with a youthful twist- picture Dolly Parton and Robert Johnson walking into a Tarantino film. She captivates audiences with her haunting slide guitar work and unique genre-defying style. A captivating dance between grit, beauty, and skill.

Sarah Rogo is a young, and gifted artist and it’s all reflected in her infectious live performances, where her energy is contagious. Steeped in the eclectic mixes of traditional music like blues, jazz, ragtime, klezmer, and classical, Rogo finds new ways to express
timeless emotions and feels. “People ask me what I’m influenced by and I laugh because the answers feel so random to
them but so special to me” Rogo says. “I spent my childhood in the public library, where stacks of CDs came home with me and opened my mind to a world outside my small hometown. I also spent a lot of time with a neighborhood family from India. I quickly fell in
love with the culture and the music which influenced my style and writing.”

Rogo immersed herself in jazz and classical orchestras on bassoon, saxophone, and clarinet, claiming to be the “ultimate band geek.” She became a young conductor and composed music of different styles and types. “Growing up, my parents were never too much into music,
so it was my own special thing- I had no rules to follow or concepts of how it should be, so I just ran with it and threw paint on the walls.”
In her late teens, Rogo attended Berklee College of Music and was introduced to, apprenticed and performed with a group of blues
musicians that changed her life, guitarist Paul Rishell, who played with and learned from Son House, and world-class harp player Annie Raines, along with country-blues acoustic guitarist Woody Mann, a former student of the legendary Reverend Gary Davis. They introduced her to artists like Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, and then they took her out with them on tour and taught her the survival tactics of life on the road.

As she gained momentum as a guitar player and songwriter, she moved to California to pursue her life as a full-time musician. It didn’t take long for things to start to happen. In 2018, and she quickly released “Live at Lestat’s West” a collection of her original songs recorded live at Lestat’s in San Diego. Shortly after relocating to Los Angeles, her first studio album “Smoke and Water” was released. “Smoke and Water” may be stripped-down but it’s also edgy and charismatic with a moody but energizing mix of originals and uniquely twisted covers on classic songs like ‘Voodoo Child’ and ‘Jolene’, while Rogo’s slide guitar and clarinet dance uniquely through the progression of songs and set a mystical and refreshing twist to modern music. At the top of 2023 Rogo released her concept record “Sunfall: Blues mantras and instrumentals for the evening hours”, which is an ode to the woods at twilight. She aims for be an innovator how music music can be made, recorded, released, and shared.

Rogo has shared the stage with artists Joe Bonamassa, Jimmie Vaughan, Larkin Poe, and Jimmie Vivino to name a few and led her band in slots at festivals throughout the country. In addition to performing, you can find Rogo lending her voice and passion to events like Ted X, where she was recently a featured speaker and performer. ‘When we listen deeply,we can change the world. Sarah Rogo takes us through the story of the moment music made her pay attention to the world outside her own. Her songs and guitar work thread through this message for a captivating lesson”– said the Ted X producers. Rogo is more than an artist; she is also an advocate who plans to use her platform to help create social awareness and promote well-being and philosophy on art and health.

Currently you can find her and her husband, producer Mitchell Haeuszer, running their production company and recording studio Haus Music Production. Always creating, always learning, always growing- Sarah Rogo treats every days as a new landscape for creation.

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