Beer Drinkin' Songs

This morning I found this under my coffee cup.

It's the new Roger Creager CD and I'll listen to it while I peel wallpaper.

Back before kiddoes, tho' I might have been pregnant w/ my firstborn, I joined The Tall One to Whom I'm Married on a Friday in College Station at the end of a weeklong transportion conference. A gathering of engineers. And some might yawn here. But, there were lots of snacks and a keg and we were promised music. For dancing.

The music, it appeared, was going to be this one little guy ... a student we presumed ... plugging guitar into amp, solo. No band. Just him. Yawn, we thought. ENGINEERS! He thought. Gah.

That was our first introduction to Roger Creager and he was just darling. Covered a ton of our favorite songs by Jerry Jeff and Robert Earl. Smiled when he sang, sounded like he had a whole band behind him, and that's where I first learned about the "Katie (sic) song."

THEN, when Roger asked for requests, some goofball, er ... engineer, from the back of the room yells out, "How 'bout some Gordon Lightfoot?"

"You serious, man?" Roger laughed. "I don't get many requests for Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, it's LONG ... and SLOW... and it's a TOTAL downer." Engineers.

Fast forward seven or so years and we've got two little boys and a babysitter and tickets for Robert Earl at Saengerhalle. Roger (and his band) are opening for him and we think we remember the name ... "Wasn't he the guy in College Station?" Turns out the crowd is mostly college-aged and largely female and wearing "Roger" t-shirts and SINGING ALONG to all his songs. And now they're HIS songs. He's not covering songs this time. And they're good. And fun. "Look at that," we said. "He's got himself a little following." We felt like two proud parents.

We've loved his music ever College Station. The boys do too, giving their own titles to his songs ... "the enchilada song." The "vanilla wafer" song.

Roger's a lot "bigger" now. Playing shows all over the nation. But, you gotta love a guy who sings about pickup trucks, "driving home" and guns. Oh, and beer.

Check 'em out. They're happy songs. And WAY more fun than Gordon Lightfoot.