Roger "Hurricane" Wilson

Roger "Hurricane" Wilson finds himself continually astonished by the blues' capacity for personal transformation. The initial exposure arrived via British groups including John Mayall, the Yardbirds, and the Animals. At nine years old in Keansburg, NJ, he first picked up the guitar while enrolled in local public schools and participating in the school ensemble. He later earned recognition as a substitute drummer during a performance in Red Bank, NJ. Because Keansburg lacked a high school, he commuted by bus to a neighboring township during his teenage years. Disapproving of the arrangement, his father from Kearny, NJ, and his mother, originally from Atlanta, GA, enrolled him in 1967 at Woodward Academy, previously called Georgia Military Academy, in Atlanta. At the time Atlanta hosted an expanding Southern blues-rock community anchored by the Allman Brothers Band. Wilson first encountered the group during complimentary shows they presented in Piedmont Park near midtown Atlanta and subsequently attended their debut indoor appearance at Atlanta Municipal Auditorium. Following Duane Allman's passing in 1971, an anthology recording and accompanying articles introduced Wilson to the guitarist's admiration for Delta blues figures such as Robert Johnson and Elmore James, prompting Wilson to explore those earlier artists himself. That same summer he returned to New Jersey and took a security-guard position at the Garden State Arts Center, now known as PNC Bank Arts Center, where he devoted considerable effort to locating recordings by Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell. The job also introduced him to guitarist Roy Buchanan. Back in Atlanta by 1972, Wilson worked at a college radio station and immersed himself in albums by Freddie King, Albert King, and James Cotton while Lynyrd Skynyrd helped revive Southern blues-rock. In 1973 he established the Roger Wilson Guitar Studio and continued teaching there for fourteen years. The following year he began contributing freelance pieces to the underground newspaper The Great Speckled Bird and conducted an interview with Roy Buchanan at Alex Cooley's Electric Ballroom. Wilson assembled his own band in 1978 and performed at the same venue, which had since been acquired by new management and renamed the Agora Ballroom on Peachtree Street directly opposite the Fox Theater. One year afterward he returned to that stage for a jam with Albert King. Parallel to his musical activities, Wilson studied broadcasting first at Brookdale College in Lynncroft, NJ, and later at Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta. Although he did not complete his degree, he secured a weekend slot at local AM station WGUN that continued for twelve years. He married in 1981. As an independent broadcaster he handled production duties for the Braves, the Falcons, and the Hawks along with traffic and board operations. In 1986 he accepted a full-time position at CNN that lasted a decade. Eventually music drew him back to touring, and over time he became a dedicated road performer who rarely revisited his home state. Two years after his father's death in 1995 he performed at the Stanhope House in Stanhope, NJ. In 2000 he captured the 2001 release Live at the Stanhope House for his own imprint, Blue Storm Records.