Features

Playing his acoustic music on 14th Street in New York City one day, 27-year-old Clarks Summit guitarist Billy Rogan was discovered.

click image to enlarge

For about a year, Billy Rogan has been entertaining New Yorkers and visitors to the ‘Big Apple’ on streets and in subways.

click image to enlarge

Billy Rogan got his first guitar for Christmas at the age of 14. With that present, he taught himself how to play using a music book his mother had in their house.

Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo Store

At least by an independent film crew that stopped to chat.

“If you stand anywhere in New York for an hour, you’re going to have 30,000 people walk past you,” said Rogan, a member of a select group called Music Under New York, run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as a way to offer pleasing music to city commuters.

“If you get a New Yorker to stop and talk to you, that says something,” Rogan said. “It’s quite the stage to perform on.”

The film crew, working on the documentary “Busking the System,” about musicians living or performing in New York City, stopped to ask Rogan about his experiences playing his finger-style acoustic guitar in such areas as Grand Central Station and Pennsylvania Station, more commonly referred to as Penn Station.

“I guess I was just another side to the story,” he said, explaining that the film focuses on three musicians from Missouri, Washington and Ohio.

“Busking the System” is still in production, but Rogan saw an hour cut of it when he played at the Silk City Flick Fest in Manchester, Conn., earlier this month.

“They had me playing on the ground there,” he said.

He’ll demonstrate his acoustic skill at The Times Leader’s Health Care Heroes gala event on Nov. 5 at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. That’s when The Times Leader will honor community leaders who have worked to improve health care in the Wyoming Valley.

The self-taught guitarist has come a long way since getting his first guitar at age 14 and learning to play chords from a book his mother, a retired piano teacher, had around the house.

“I was all about the grunge scene,” he said, recalling his teenage years and crediting bands such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins for getting him into rock ’n’ roll in the first place.

“Guitar and rock ’n’ roll are just a huge influence in a teenager’s life,” he said.

Besides the streets of New York City, the Abington Heights High School graduate has honed his musical talents locally, mostly in Scranton clubs as well as at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch, a guitar camp in the southeastern hills of Ohio. There, he and 10 others studied with Tim Reynolds, a German-born musician skilled on electric and acoustic guitar who has performed as part of an acoustic duo with Dave Matthews and is a founding member of Dave Matthews & Friends.

“That was amazing,” Rogan said, noting it showed him what aspects of his music he needed to improve upon.

Going into it, he admits he wasn’t sure what to expect of the famed musician.

“You think, ‘Is this guy going to have a huge God-like complex?’ ”

To Reynolds’ credit, he didn’t have a big ego as far as Rogan could tell.

“He was very, very humble, a real peaceful guy, real soft-spoken,” Rogan said. “You can tell he really listened to you and what you had to say.”

“He would tell crazy experiences about being on the road.”

Like Reynolds, Rogan plays electric and acoustic guitar. He started on the acoustic guitar about four years ago and says it gives him “the ability to write more complete, full-sounding songs where you don’t need a bass player or drummer.”

His acoustic influences, according to his official Web site, www.billyrogan.com, include Michael Hedges, Leo Kottke, Keller Williams and Kaki King.

“It allows you to construct songs that are much more layered,” he said. “They breathe a little bit more on their own.”

In settings such as cocktail hours and weddings, he plays instrumental and classical pieces from artists such as Spanish composer Francisco T�rrega. Also, these days, he takes time to work with intermediate and beginner guitarists in group settings.

His last clinic on Oct. 14 brought six guitarists, and he hopes for 12 at the next one in November. While the clinic’s next location is unknown (the first one was at AFA Gallery in Scranton), Rogan says guitar players with a passion to improve can always contact him via email at billy@billyrogan.com.

Meanwhile, you’ll find him playing his electric guitar at the Milestone Ranch in Scott Township at 9:30 p.m. Friday, where, as usual, he’ll perform with guitarist and singer Jimmy Mancus.

His musical endeavors will continue “as long as I’m playing and people are digging it,” he said.

IF YOU GO

What: Health Care Heroes gala

Who: Guitarist Billy Rogan, featured entertainer

When: 6 p.m. Nov. 5

Where: Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Route 315, Plains Township

Tickets: $100 each or $850 for a table of 10. Download a reservation form at www.timesleader.com.

Reservation deadline: Oct. 30.

More info: 970-7393