ROGER STREET FRIEDMAN

Americana singer-songwriter Roger Street Friedman’s latest album—his fourth overall—Love Hope Trust, sagely and sensitively snapshots moments of modern living. It’s a sonic scrapbook that documents a divided world while exploring intimately personal journeys that evince universal truths. The 12-song album is produced by Grammy-winning producer, guitarist, and songwriter Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, Judy Collins, Willie Nelson), furthering a multi-album artistic continuum between Roger and Larry. The album also features Jason Crosby (Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh) on keyboards, Teresa Williams and Lucy Kaplansky on background vocals, and a cameo by the legendary Gil Goldstein on accordion.  

“This album encompasses a myriad of concerns, fears, joys and sorrows inherent in everyday life in this crazy world from the perspective of age—dare I say maturity—and gratitude,” the Sea Cliff, New York-based artist confirms. He continues: “I strive to get to emotional truths in my songwriting where people say, ‘oh yeah, I’ve experienced that,’ or just to make people feel something, sadness, joy or longing. That is what makes an album of mine feel successful.” 

Roger is a critically-acclaimed artist who has garnered features, album reviews, and video premieres in esteemed outlets like American Songwriter, Goldmine Magazine, Bluegrass Situation, Americana Highways, The Boot, No Depression, Consequence of Sound, American Blues Scene, Americana UK, and Elmore. He is a literate lyricist with an empathic and insightful perspective that reveals the magic in the mundane aspects of everyday living.

His songs venture down those dirt roads of folk, country, vintage rock n’ roll, and blues. Love Hope Trust, in particular, is inspired by 1970s folk-rock artists such as Cat Stevens and Jackson Browne. 

Love Hope Trust is a marquee entry in Roger’s oeuvre, earning favorable reviews, and plum chart positions. American Songwriter says: “Love Hope Trust offers a snapshot of a world gone awry and the resilience it takes to make one’s way toward promise and prosperity in spite of it all.” Goldmine Magazine gushes: “It’s the culmination of a career that’s seen his reputation elevated to upper strata of today’s most consistent Americana artists.” Additional coverage includes reviews in Glide, The Big Takeover, American Songwriter, Americana Highways, The Aquarian, No Depression, and Relix, among others. Love Hope Trust reached #3 on the Roots Music Report’s “Roots Rock Album Chart.” The title track has been nestled in the Americana Music Association's album chart’s Top 100 for over 8 weeks. Roger also landed a triple 5 on the FAI Folk DJ charts, charting fifth for artist, album, and single of the month for “The Ghosts of Sugarland.” Roger has supported Love Hope Trust with well-attended tours opening for acclaimed Americana duo, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams.

The album is culled from a collection of songs Roger wrote during the pandemic and onward. Love Hope Trust opens with a lone roots-rock shuffle riff played on an acoustic guitar. Then, as if a camera pans to a widescreen shot, the full band enters with a nuanced rhythm section groove, and Larry Campbell’s elegant, rockabilly-esque lead guitar figures, and Jason Crosby’s organ fills weaving in and out. Down the center, Roger’s vocals cut through, rhythmic yet melodic, stating the facts of this frightening time while also dishing out some hope. He sings: Let’s go back to the beginning/Time to pay some rent/all this time we’ve been moving/Hard to believe where we went/Troubled hearts and spinning wheels/Trouble blowin out and in/The butterflies in my stomach/Wonder when this too shall end.

The stately folk-rocker “Thankful For This Day” is lavished with real strings—arranged by Larry—a lush interlace of acoustic and electric guitars, including 12-string and baritone—tinting textures by piano and organ, and achingly beautiful harmony vocals courtesy of Teresa Williams, Lucy Kaplansky, Roger’s older brother Lev, and his 15-year-old daughter Allie. As the title suggests, the song burns brightly with gratitude and one choice passage is: I am thankful for this day/For the blue that fills the skies/For all I’ve yet to see/For every hope and every dream/I am thankful for this day. 

The wistfully evocative, “In The Summertime,” is balmy Americana adorned with soulful backup vocals, teardrop pedal steel, and country touches of mandolin and fiddle. The harrowing Dylan-esque storyteller ballad, “Ghosts Of Sugarland,” details some of the historical horrors of racism often glossed over in educational settings. The lyrics reveal some hard truths of a shameful past. Here, Roger sings: Imperial Sugar was built and thrived on the juice of the sugarcane/in the town of Sugarland Texas on the backs of tortured slaves/on the bare heels of the Civil War its fortunes had run dry/no free labor in the fields or the mill/meant Imperial Sugar might die. 

Love Hope Trust is the fourth installment in a second chance-era of musicality. Roger left music behind for 25 years before resurfacing with his acclaimed 2014 debut, The Waiting Sky. He returned to music after experiencing a series of seismic life changes, including the deaths of his father and mother, marriage and, later, the births of his two children. 

Today, with a well-received album catalog, an engaged fanbase, and a lot of road work under his belt, Roger has created a robust and respected artist profile. “I feel like I’m on the right path, and I’m still growing. I think it took me longer to get smart enough to write these songs,” he says with a good-natured laugh. “Now, I get to make up for lost time, and I am really lucky because I don’t have a lack of inspiration—something always comes to me when I sit down with my guitar.”