Very Best of Stan Rogers

Liner Note Authors: Ariel Rogers; Paul Mills.
Recording information: C.B.C. Studio 4S, Toronto (04/1979); Grand Avenue Studios, Hamilton (04/1979); Springfield Sound (04/1979); The Groaning Board, Toronto (04/1979); C.B.C. Studio 4S, Toronto (09/1976-??/1980); Grand Avenue Studios, Hamilton (09/1976-??/1980); Springfield Sound (09/1976-??/1980); The Groaning Board, Toronto (09/1976-??/1980); C.B.C. Studio 4S, Toronto (11/1982-04/1983); Grand Avenue Studios, Hamilton (11/1982-04/1983); Springfield Sound (11/1982-04/1983); The Groaning Board, Toronto (11/1982-04/1983).
Stan Rogers' recording career was not long -- just over a dozen years, from 1969 to 1983 -- but his output was enough to give him a special place in the history of Canadian music. He neatly cloaked a kind of resigned but hopeful mysticism in traditional-sounding songs that used local Canadian history as jumping-off points for expanding and poetic song cycles. This set collects some of his best-known cuts, including "Fogarty's Cove," "Northwest Passage," and "Forty-Five Years," and it makes a nice introduction to this intriguing folk musician, although listeners may want to go back to hear the songs in their original settings as part of a longer suite, a form Rogers made his own. ~ Steve Leggett