Jason Rogers Country Music

Article Date: 5/27/09
Source: Chicago’s Daily Herald

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Former Naperville man out with first country music CD

By Rob Olmstead | Daily Herald StaffContact writer

Jason Rogers spent time in Naperville, but considers himself a country boy. He’s pursuing a country music career in Nashville.

Growing up first in Maine and then in rural Canada, Jason Rogers experienced a bit of a culture shock when he moved with his parents to Naperville around age 20.

Used to living with friends and relatives who often couldn’t even afford some of the basics, let alone luxuries, Rogers now found himself among the McMansions.

“You had to drive two hours to go to a McDonald’s or a movie theater,” he said of his early years. In Naperville, “there’s little ice cream shops everywhere.”

It was all somewhat jarring.

“I found Naperville to be kind of a fairy land,” he said.

Rogers, now 32, is living in yet another world now: Nashville, where he hopes to build a country music career. His first album, simply titled “Jason Rogers,” was released this spring. And he keeps busy with singing gigs.

Rogers has maintained, his Web biography says, that country perspective on life, focusing on simple pleasures and “what life should really be about.”

Rogers believes in family – he married in 2004 and had a daughter last year. He believes in classic love songs that he says focus on the true meaning of love.

“I try to make that clear because I think it’s a lost art,” he says. Too many songs, he says, “have confused it with sex.”

But most of all, it seems, Rogers believes in laughter, as he punctuates nearly every sentence with his affable, high-pitched laugh.

It’s a personality that has served him well, giving him a chance meeting at a record store on his honeymoon in Hawaii with a man who put him in touch with his current album producer.

It’s an album, Rogers says, that he went out of his way to reward the buyer with, making sure the CD had 12 songs instead of 10 and contained printed lyrics.

“They just paid you $20 or whatever and they deserve to get something on the inside,” he laughs.

While the former Naperville resident hasn’t hit it big yet, he’s making a living, playing gigs, he says, seven days a week.

“They say in Nashville either it’s a career or don’t do it,” Rogers noted. “If you’re just going to try a year or two, it’s not going to work out.”

So far, that advice has proven to be true, he said.

“We’re eatin’, as far as I know, pretty good,” he laughs.

Even better than that, he’ll be featured in Country Weekly magazine June 8 and a European magazine the same month.

To his friends back in the suburbs, he has this to say:

“Call local Chicago radio stations because they’ll be getting a CD over the next few weeks,” he said.

As always, he ends it with a laugh.

• For more information on Rogers, visit cowboyjason.com.

Article Date: 5/5/09
Source: Bugle Observer – By Shawn Merrithew

Country Weekly spreading the word about Nashville country star, and former Carleton County resident, Jason Rogers

Dreams are coming true for a Carleton County country music singer-songwriter.

For the last few years, Wicklow’s Jason Rogers, who now resides in Nashville, Tenn., has been trying to break into the country music scene.

In 2007, Rogers earned some success by winning the top honours in International Song of the Year competition for his original song Breathe Into Me. The recognition prompted the young musician to release his self-titled debut album in 2008, and sales have been good.

Since then, Rogers has worked hard to establish himself in the music the business, pumping to have his album played on the air waves.

“I swear, every radio station I have sent a CD to, from France to the United States, they’ll play it,” Rogers said. “And I have never yet pumped a single to a radio station. I give them my CD and tell them to pump what they like, and it seems to work. I’m getting air play in 15 different countries.”

But nothing could prepare the young star for the news he got in a call from the editor of country music’s largest publication, County Weekly.

Rogers said he couldn’t believe the magazine wanted to do a feature article on him for its June issue. The magazine interviewed the former Carleton County resident as an up-and-coming star to be featured in its Listen Up section. The feature will introduce readers and new fans to the talented newcomer.

Country Weekly is one of the largest read publications in North America.

“A lot of the people, who listen to country, get that magazine,” Rogers said, pointing out he expects the issue to hit newsstands in two or three weeks. “It is an ultimate honour for me, a dream come true really.”

This spells good news for Rogers.

After being contacted by Country Weekly, he said, other publications in Europe began contacting him as well. He said he is surprised at how much Europeans have taken to his music and it is a great feeling to be featured in magazines over there as well.

“But the Country Weekly is by far the biggest honour I’ve come in contact with,” Rogers said. “I’m tickled about it.”

Rogers has even more to be happy about. If being featured in Country Weekly wasn’t enough, he said, his album is starting to appear on Country Music Television’s (CMT) featured CD.

“So that is also an honour,” he said.

While his new-found stardom rises, Rogers said, he remains busy getting his name out there. Since the release of his first album which is available in several stores throughout the Upper Valley he has been going non stop.

He said he is currently working on a deal with major U.S. department store chains to carry his CD.

He also noted he will be performing at a benefit concert later this summer in Centerville, Tenn.

“It is for the Sarah Cannon Foundation, which is a cancer institute out of Nashville,” Rogers explained. “Sarah was Minnie Pearl in the old Hee Haw show and that is her hometown (Centerville). It is a big, all-night musical festival on Aug. 6, and I’m opening it for the first hour.”

In addition, the Wicklow man plans to do an Atlantic Canada tour, possibly next year. He said he has been in contact with promoters in Prince Edward Island for the Cavendish Festival next year, hoping to add his name to the venue which includes names like Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Martina McBride.

From there, he said, he wants to return to Carleton County and perform.

“My main goal is to head up to my home grounds,” Rogers added. “However that is going to happen, that is my top priority to set up a tour and head up to New Brunswick to give them something I wanted there to be when I was a kid.”