Edward Rogers

by Andrew LeaheyAlthough born in Birmingham, England, songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Edward Rogers later relocated to New York City, where he funneled his classic pop influences into several power pop bands (including the Green Rooftops and the co-ed duo Bedsit Poets) as well as a solo career. Rogers grew up listening to the Anglo-pop sounds of the '60s and '70s, from the jangling psychedelia of the Byrds and the Zombies to such vocally driven groups as the Association and the Mamas & the Papas. After moving to New York, he took up work at a nonprofit organization while playing drums in his spare time, but a subway accident in 1985 resulted in the loss of his right arm and half of his right leg. Rogers spent six weeks in a local hospital, eventually emerging with a new outlook on life and a renewed interest in music. By 1987, he'd begun attending jam sessions with local pop-schooled musicians, and the group soon launched a recurring concert series that paid tribute to such songwriters as Burt Bacharach. Rogers continued that work with his own concert project, The Loser's Lounge, and later produced a series of sold-out shows for former Zombies frontman Colin Blunstone, who hadn't played a New York show in years. In return, both Blunstone and Rod Argent contributed vocals to Rogers' first solo effort, 2004's Sunday Fables. Rogers also helped form the Green Rooftops, a pop combo comprised of several veterans of Manhattan's pop scene, as well as Bedsit Poets, a folksy project with fellow U.K. expatriate Amanda Thorpe. You Haven't Been Where I've Been, his second solo album, arrived in 2008.