Roanman

“Whoa!” says Roanman when asked about his musical influences. “You have to understand, I’ve been around for a long time. The much easier question to answer here would be about my non influences.”

“Ok, so give us the list of your non influences.” 

Roanman, looking vaguely uncomfortable says, “In the unlikely event that somebody actually reads this thing, I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. But … I can’t do that Tuvan throat singing thing. So there’s that.”

When pressed, he says, “Well, as much as I don’t always like admitting it, I was there for a bunch of it. I watched Bob Seger and The Last Herd lip sync East Side Story on Swingin’ Time. I saw the MC5, Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen, The Amboy Dukes, Grand Funk Railroad, and Parliament. I saw the The Temptations when they were still having hits, Stevie Wonder when he was Little, the O’Jays and TSOP .

I saw Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Caught a show with Willie Dixon and Carey Bell together with Little Brother Montgomery … I think it was Little Brother Montgomery … that night is a little hazy. I saw Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown at the Armadillo World Headquarters.

I saw The Clash, The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Specials, The Stranglers, The Bus Boys, Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and The Wailers.

“I’m coming from a long list of musics.”

“I will tell you that the one constant here is that if you can’t dance to it, I ain’t interested.”