An inexhausible field of experiment â and has been so for a good three decades. Retrospect and foresight at the same time.

20 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk Blues, ROCK: Acoustic



Details:
Somewhere beyond the rainbow...
The coal dust of Germanyâs âRuhrâ region clogs your lungs more than it clouds your mind.
The dust of American desert highways, leading straight as the crow flies into infinity, is much better for that â at least poetically speaking. For Roger Matura, born a coal minerâs son in Gelsenkirchen,Germany it was clear from the beginning that he would sooner warm to the heavenly folk-blues of American provenance than to the dark sweaty coal-mining songs of his birthplace.
In New Yorkâs Greenwich Village, where Roger Matura settled in 1978, they were obviously waiting for some one like him as he quickly advanced from street musician to a hero of the scene. Roger didnât just have his wonderful raspy voice to offer, but a whole range of English songs whose melodies snuggled right up to Bob Dylanâs style. In his guitar solos, he mixed in the wildness of Jimi Hendrix and the rough rocky elegance of Lou Reed.
The former social worker worked hard and heartily on his records, which were released between 1979 and 1981 on Moses Aschâs legendary Folkways Records Label. Since then Roger Matura has been pendling between two continents, proving himself as a gifted singer/songwriter who finally even achieved recognition in Germany. Still, Roger Matura remains an insider tip in spite of his many activities, with true authenticity in folk-rock, as always, being reserved for Anglo-American artists. Roger has released nine albums, among them the double CD âOn Folkwaysâ, on his own label âHotconâsince 1988, writing heart-moving songs again and again â and far too few have ever even heard them.
A very unusual Roger Matura album came out on Ozello Music this past year, the instrumental âTime Traveller.â On SONGWAYS, the new Sublabel for singer-songwriters, blues and the like, the indie-label presents a selection of Maturaâs most beautiful and most intensive songs with the release of the 3-CD-Box âthe Return of the CaveMan / auf wiedersehn zukunft!?â, recorded between 1979 and 2005. While CD 1 and CD 2 present 39 original compositions altogether, among them 3 unpublished tracks to date, CD 3 has 17 cover versions, almost all of which pay tribute to Rogerâs idols and inspirations for his own song-writing art. With the track âGive My Regards to Waterloo Stationâ, Roger Maturaâs fragile throaty voice and acoustic guitar attest to the process of his musical socialization. With âA Whiter Shade Of Paleâ, simmering with its inevitable Hammond organ sound, with the Kinks classic âSunny Afternoonâ that sounds even more sentimental than the original, or Lennon/McCartneys âNowhere Manâ, that holds all the weariness of the world with the lamenting sound of the harmonium, he continues excellently in this vein. Driven by the drunken swing à la Tom Waits, Roger Matura sings himself, supported by a subtley unobtrusive accompanying band, into the Olympia of Rockân Roll heroes who failed to appeal to the tastes of mainstream consumers. And his version of the classic âMoonlight In Vermontâ has by no means to hide behind the likes of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra.
While âGive My Regards To Waterloo Stationâ, is a new production with Roger Maturaâs monolithic sound, his selection of songs from earlier productions points out his oftentimes highly diversified moods, intentions and musical focus. Supported by an illustrous band of musicians and using analogue technology, handmade music, guitars, violin, saxophone, tin whistle, accordeon, keyboards and drums, Roger âCavemanâ Matura develops a sound that orbits around classic folk, raw rock and archaic blues, performing a flight over 50 years of pop music history to boot.
âThe Return of the CaveMan / auf wiedersehn zukunft!?â, that starts with âSomewhere Beyond The Rainbowâ from âTime Travellerâ and ranges over the âDämonen der Finsternisâ to the until now unpublished âIâll remember Youâ, reveals the opus of a manic song-worker. Roger Matura knows how to place accents â with his music as well as with his lyrics â in which he continually reveals his unsatiable hunger for love and freedom. And heâs not afraid of transfiguration in the process, as can be heard in the song âOnly Fools Fall In Loveâ (from the album âBlue Shadowsâ) and the catchy âUnder The Cajun Moonâ (from âOn Folkwaysâ). Unmistakeably clear, on the other hand, are his statements about our omnipresent destructive âtrash cultureâ (âGeneration Kaputtâ) and the demand for a life with human dignity for all (âHart leben jung sterbenâ â âlive hard, die youngâ).
Rogerâs songs are short and sweet, making their point without pointing accusing fingers or using filigree frills. Especially the selected tracks from his albums âIndustriestadt-Totâ and âLive In Thessalonikiâ show a hugely physical presence that let you know how Roger Matura, with painful intensity and passion, stands up against the âDämonen der Finsternisâ (âDemons of Darknessâ). The melancholy side of Roger Matura, that doesnât even shy from sentimental folk-kitsch and pansy pop, reveals itself in songs like âWintermondâ, âSternenjägerâ and âWir stehân zusammenâ, off his album âSchokoguß & Vanilleeisâ.
If Roger almost exclusively sings in English itâs not because he rejects German lyrics, but simply because he feels he owes it to his artistic works, where not the choice of language is important, but the musical quality. For the artist who lives and works in the greater Cologne area today, the world of music is an inexhaustable field of experiment where he can let his thoughts and feelings run free. The desire to squeeze Roger Matura into a stylistic corsette, to still label him as the âRuhrpott Dylanâ, is simply obsolete. With the 3-CD-Box, his musical world full of turns and surprises opens up, and itâs more than worth discovering.