- Swamp poet
- Songwriter
- Singer
Live radio interview on WFLA 540 AM Talk Radio with
Just Outside hosts Travis Holmes & Dustin Johns
Recorded Sept. 18, 2009
Daytona Beach News Journal---July 25, 2008
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Rog Lee — What Was Florida
VITAL STATS: Rog Lee is a DeBary resident who says he has a “master’s degree from the University of Mean Streets Busking in East Lansing, Mich.” He lists his day job as “back porch songwriter and acoustic guitar player.”
Lee’s song “City of Jacksonville” won first place in the Will McLean Foundation’s 2008 Best New Florida Song competition, while his song “Beach Road Ramble” came in fifth place.
THE MUSIC: If Jimmy Buffett is Florida’s unofficial poet-troubadour, then Rog Lee is old Florida’s unofficial bard. Lee combines down-home guitar picking, a grizzled and soulful voice, a sly sense of humor and a strong environmentalist consciousness to create his folk songs.
Such songs as “Nighttime on Lake Monroe,” "St. Johns Lullaby” and the gritty, satirical “Developer’s Stomp” reflect Lee’s love of his adopted home state. Sometimes Lee’s songs evoke smiles, sometimes a melancholy sigh — sometimes both at the same time, as with “(You Can Still See) Florida.”
But Lee isn’t just a Florida bard, as evidenced on “She’s Gone (But That’s Good”)” and “In Case of Rapture (Can I Have Your Car?).”
SAMPLE LYRIC: “You can still see Florida in a lifelike state, ’cause they have reproduced it for ya, just $60 at the gate. They’ve got robot gators there, they got some robot manatee. But I’m just afraid that sooner or later, they’re gonna have a facsimile of me.”
YOU’LL LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKE: Jimmy Buffett, Gamble Rogers.
AVAILABLE AT: At live gigs and Steve’s Downtown Music, 108 S. Woodland Blvd., DeLand, $10. Also online at roglee.com, $15 (includes postage and handling).
UPCOMING GIGS: 7 p.m. today