Roger Greenawalt

Roger Greenawalt
Background information
Born
Washington DC, USA
Genres Rock, pop, Acoustic Rock, Reggae, Dance, Film/TV Scoring, Electronica, Sound Design
Occupations Record Producer, Composer, Performer
Years active 1978-Present
Associated acts Ben Kweller, Rufus Wainwright
Website beatlescompleteonukulele.com
Notable instruments
Ukulele, Bass, Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Pedal Steel, Lap Steel, Percussion, Programming

Roger Greenawalt (Born in Washington, DC) is an American music producer and musician known for discovering singer Ben Kweller. A story on Greenawalt's efforts to get Kweller signed to a major label appeared in the New Yorker on April 7, 1997.[1]

Contents

Background

Greenawalt studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston from 1978-1980. In 1980 Greenawalt formed the "Post Punk No Wave Death Disco" band The Dark who gained a loyal following and drew the interest of Ric Ocasek, lead singer and guitarist of The Cars. Ocasek produced The Dark's second EP, Darkworld, in 1982. A single, "Judy",[2] became a local hit in Boston.[3]

Since relocating to New York in the early 1990s, Greenawalt has produced a wide variety of music, including records by bands such as Ben Kweller, The Pierces, and Julian Velard. He currently operates Shabby Road Studio in Williamsburg. Recent productions include recordings by The Pierces, Julian Velard, Thinking In Pictures, Electric Child, Lovely Liar, and Love Crushed Velvet.

Beatles Complete on Ukulele

On December 8, 2004, Greenawalt first performed his Beatles Complete on Ukulele concert by playing all 185 original Beatles songs in one day on ukulele with 60 guest singers at Elizabeth Streb's SLAM Action Lab in Brooklyn, New York. In 2008, he did the same show again at Brooklyn's Spike Hill. Since then, Greenawalt has performed the marathon show twice more at Brooklyn Bowl and twice at SXSW in Austin, Texas (2010,[4] 2011). He performed an abridged version near San Francisco at The McEvoy Ranch Harvest Festival in November 2010. Performers at these various concerts have included Nellie McKay, The Naked Brothers Band, The Pierces, Adam Green, Ryan Miller of Guster, Jeremiah Birnbaum, and Freedy Johnston. Greenawalt has an accompanying web site where he is rerecording original Beatles songs on ukulele. He releases a new track each week with an original essay about the song. [1]

Discography

References

  1. ^ Seabrook, John (April 7, 1997). "A profile of Greenawalt’s role in the discovery of Ben Kweller". The New Yorker. http://www.booknoise.net/johnseabrook/stories/culture/bigben/index.html. Retrieved 2009-06-22. 
  2. ^ Dark, The. "Judy". song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTJKfzzGf0A. Retrieved 24 May 2011. 
  3. ^ Belm. "Living in This Darkworld". Belm Blog. http://blog.belm.com/2009/03/23/living-in-this-darkworld/. 
  4. ^ Carr, David (2010-03-19). "SXSW: The Beatles Meet the Ukulele". The New York Times. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/sxsw-the-beatles-meet-the-ukulele/. Retrieved 2011-05-20. 

External links