In the late sixties when America's youth was "rediscovering the blues," Robin Rogers was "living the blues." As a runaway teen trying to escape a troubled home, she made her way to cities like Richmond, Virginia; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; and Coconut Grove, Florida living the hippie lifestyle of the times, even sharing residence in a commune in Love Valley, North Carolina for one summer. Sometimes she slept in parks, under picnic tables and in abandoned cars. After serving time as a juvenile in reform school for truancy and being out of parental control, she was finally released at age 15 to begin life on her own. It was a hard life for a young girl, and it wasn't long until Robin was addicted to drugs and alcohol and thank goodness, singing!
She quickly learned to make a living through her love for music armed only with her God-given voice and an outgoing personality. She learned to play guitar and began accompanying herself performing on the streets, at parties and coffee houses for food and tips. This would set the stage for an independent strong-willed spirit and charismatic singer as a mature woman.
Robin grew up in a musical family. Her grandfather, Roy Hall, was a famous bluegrass musician, popular on radio and vinyl in the 1930s. Her maternal grandmother was also an entertainer who sang and danced with Robin's great grandfather and his band during the 1920s. Robin's mother had a wonderful voice and always encouraged her daughter musically. She used to load up Robin and her brothers and cart them around to see Christmas lights in the neighborhood while teaching them to sing and harmonize on Christmas carols. Robin's mother also took Robin, as a pre-teen, to sit in with local professional bands in the Tidewater area of Virginia where Robin grew up. She sang Patsy Cline and Motown tunes. Robin said that when she first heard the applause of strangers, she knew she was hooked!
Robin quickly learned to mimic many singers, but took her cue from the strong and powerful female singers of the day such as Janis Joplin, Grace Slick and Mavis Staples. Robin's amazing and powerful voice would quickly become her trademark and gain attention wherever she went. Her goal was to make a living performing music, and this she has done for over 30 years. Her first road gig was when she was 17 and she traveled with the Platters. She has performed almost every genre of music since then. Whatever the gig called for, Robin delivered, knowing in her heart that music was her life's calling. If the opportunity was there, so was she. Each new style was a challenge, and ultimately served to enrich her own unique, evolving talent. Moving to South Florida in 1979 to record for the Sal Soul Label, a subsidiary of RCA, Robin recorded at the well-known Miami Sound Studios and lived in Ft. Lauderdale for the next ten years performing full time.
As fate would have it, Robin became drug & alcohol free in 1989 and would turn her life around. She moved to North Carolina in 1990 and played in various house bands in the Charlotte area for the next ten years, doing some recording, writing and enjoying music again clean and sober for the first time in her life since she was that young girl back in Virginia.
So where did the blues come in? Robin said she was always drawn in when she heard the element of blues in any type of music. "I heard blues in music of the late sixties and early seventies from artists like Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and many of the Motown artists too.
Robin got involved with the Charlotte Blues Society in the mid-nineties and began a personal crusade which involved her husband and band-mate, Tony Rogers. They set out to research where this wonderful style of music came from and who the original blues musicians and singers were that perpetuated it. They were hooked, and came to the realization that all styles of music pretty much came from the blues, i.e. rock and roll, rhythm and blues, jazz, etc.
Robin and Tony Rogers started performing as an acoustic duo, with Tony playing guitar/dobro and Robin on harmonica and percussion. It wasn't too long before she was heard by producer/musician, Jim Brock and was asked to do a CD which was released in 2001 entitled "Time For Myself," a contemporary blues record which contains six originals penned by Robin.
Soon after the release of that disc, they realized they needed to put together a band. They did, and went on to win the 2003 Charlotte Blues Society's Blues Challenge, winning the right to represent Charlotte, North Carolina in Memphis, Tennessee in January 2004. They competed against 98 acts from all over the world in the International Blues Challenge, sponsored by the Blues Foundation. After three nights of tough competition, Robin Rogers and Her Hot Band emerged as one of only nine finalists in the 2004 International Blues Challenge, which was judged by the industry heavyweights like Bruce Iglauer of Alligator Records and blues recording artist, Kenny Neal, to name a few.
Robin and Tony were so mesmerized by the music of artists like Son House, Charlie Patton, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie and Gary Davis, that they were inspired to record some of these wonderful tunes for their long-awaited second release, entitled "Crazy, Cryin' Blues," which was released in 2004 and won the "Best Self-Produced CD" award from the Blues Foundation as part of the International Blues Challenge 2005. CD's were submitted from Blues Societies worldwide and judged by Presidents of the following record labels: Alligator Records, Memphis Int'l, Northern Blues Records, Archer Records and Severn Records.
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