Maggie & Mr. Rogers

Although I haven’t seen Roots duo Maggie & Mr. Rogers in performance yet (I hope to tonight) based on the videos on their Facebook page, this evening’s appearance by the pair at Dora Keogh Irish pub promises to be a charming delight.

Whether you watch them online as a duo, or in trio mode joined by Donald Rooke on laptop steel and Dobro (as they will be tonight) the focus is mostly on young singer Maggie Keogh.

The budding Jazz/Folk chanteuse is obviously at least a generation younger than accompanying guitarist and occasional companion vocalist Scott Rogers, but the two have an easy flow together that suggests a strong sympatico. Music will do that of course, transcending differences of age, gender, religion and race to bring people together in combos that may seem unlikely from a superficial view.

Maggie Keogh's vocals exude a vintage feel -FACEBOOK
Maggie Keogh’s vocals exude a vintage feel -FACEBOOK
Rogers, and Rooke when he’s on hand, obviously take a lot of delight in providing a solid musical framework from which Maggie can explore her talents, which she does through one of those retro-style round Swing-Jazz era design microphones, adding a vintage visual feel to enhance the effect of her time-bending vocals.

Keogh easily moves between traditional Folk tunes such as “The Lark” into Swing-Jazz numbers like “Anything But Love” and has an authentic, still developing voice that holds a lot of promise for the future and is already interestingly engaging.

The trio performed together previously under the name The Scott Rogers Revue, but even in the tapes from one of those sets at Free Times Café from last year you can feel that despite the huge difference in experience this is at least an equal musical partnership, so the current name certainly better suits.

Tonight’s show in the room at 141 Danforth Ave., a bit east of Broadview, will be a short one, since it only runs from 8 p.m. till just 10:30 and musical guests Black Suit Devil is doing the opening set.

-Gary 17, TorontoMoon.ca - Gary-17 / Toronto Moon

Music is constantly full of surprises. I mean, who would have thought that a pension-aged guy and a barely bar-legal young lady would sound so good together, let alone that they would so seamlessly create a similar bonding between Jazz and Folk that would seem so natural?

When I last mentioned the charming Folk-Jazz duo Maggie & Mr. Rogers in November in an article about a Winterfolk Festival preview show, I noted that they had just released a new ep and would be sharing some of that material both that night and at the festival itself. When I had first written about them previous to that, this past August, having only heard them on video, I was already poised to become a fan based on what I saw. And now, with the self-titled disc in hand and having had a chance to see them live, I can say that any superlatives I used in describing them were if anything understatements!

It’s the voice and persona of young singer Maggie Keogh (whose 19th birthday party also happened to be taking place the night I caught their show live) that really makes this act, of course. But don’t discount the contribution that her 62-year-old godfather Scott Rogers (he literally is!) makes in providing mellow, smooth and soulful guitar, ukulele and vocal accompaniment.

This charming duo (often augmented by a third or fourth member, such as Don Rooke, who co-produced and performed several instruments on the self-titled four-track debut ep) is elemental, sweet, captivating and nourishing. As I noted previously, Rogers and Rooke provide the bedrock from which Maggie can bounce and soar on Swing-Jazz and Folk classics.

There’s often a sort of brooding, forlorn sensibility in her approach to some tunes, of which the ep gives ample demonstration on “Who Knows Where The Time Goes” that Judy Collins made famous in 1968 and “Harlem” (whose origin I couldn’t track) with their poignant lyrics and mournfully sparse and tender accompaniment. Equally engaging versions of “Something About What Happens When We Talk” by Lucinda Williams and the Etta James classic “At Last” make this a sweet and satisfying —if too brief!— listen from start to finish.

170901 (cx5) Moon 17 centsWWith the disc in hand the pair will be the 9 p.m. feature attraction tonight at the weekly Fat Albert’s Coffeehouse in the Steelworkers Hall at 25 Cecil Ave. off Spadina near College. The open stage, as seminal an event in the local Roots community as there is, gets underway at 8 (sign up starts at 7) and there’s a nominal cover charge of a couple of loonies.

But wait, there’s more! The pair, joined by Rooke, will be doing a set tomorrow evening as well, at another iconic local Roots room as they return to Free Times Café at 320 College St. to do the first half of double-act night that also includes songwriter Will Melville. Door open at 7 (it’s not indicated whether or not there’s a cover) and the trio performs from 8-9 followed by Melville.

Bringing Jazz to the Roots scene and Roots to Jazz rooms (they played Jazz salons in Montreal and west TO over the past year) seems to be a mission to which this superficially unlikely but nicely complementary and likeable pair of artists are well suited indeed. - Toronto Moon Magazine