Biography

Quite a few people know the story of my grandmother joining Atlanta's All Saints Episcopal Church in 1958, then creating a beautiful award winning painting of that church in the early 60's. My aunt gave me the painting back in 1995. 40 years after my grandmother's passing in 1981, I decided to be received into this same church in 2021. Before doing so, I had begun work on this CD,  my 27th , A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING, consisting of songs written over the course of years in recovery. In doing so, I decided to use her painting as the CD artwork. One thing lead to another, bringing the journey full circle. I could not have made it up if I tried.

Contact: Roger Wilson
Email: roger@hurricanewilson.com[/email]
Website: http://www.hurricanewilson.com
http://www.bluestormrecords.com
Phone: 678-296-9850

"This guy plays some great Blues".... Les Paul

"Roger "Hurricane" Wilson is a force to be reckoned with"... Francine Reed (Lyle Lovett/ Willie Nelson)

"Roger is the "Real Deal"... Walter Trout

"Roger "Hurricane" Wilson is of tomorrow's Blues generation"... Bobby Rush



People say a picture paints a thousand words. The portrait of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Midtown Atlanta that adorns the cover of this album paints even more. Words about family, about identity, about how our life’s journey has a habit of circling back to where we need it to. The painting is by Fannie Mae Alonso, who joined our church in late 1958. She lived just around the corner on Techwood Drive in a neighborhood that has since seen an Olympic village come and go for the 1996 Games held in Atlanta, and now houses dorms for students at Georgia Tech. Time marches on, yet memory reminds us of what mattered most to us in times gone by. Fannie Mae Alonso was Roger Wilson’s grandmother. As a child, Roger can remember being shown the painting on a visit to his grandmother in 1966, yet it wasn’t until just a couple of years ago that Roger unearthed this connection between the painting and the church Roger himself was now calling home. Not much has changed about the frontage of the church these past 60 or so years since the portrait was painted, yet so much has changed about the world around it. May Roger’s music in this album be a blessing such that you might remember your own precious gifts of the past, and be inspired to trace the full circles of your life.

- Simon Mainwaring, Rector, All Saints’ Church, Atlanta

TESTIMONIAL:
It was just about 60 years ago in 1963 when Roger, barely 10 years old at the time, took his first guitar lesson and since then there’s been no looking back. Over the last 50 years, Roger’s involvement has reached into pretty much every aspect of the music business. Being a musician, a singer, a songwriter, a record label owner/operator, an advisory board member of the Georgia Music Industry Association, an International Blues Competition judge, and having 50 plus years of broadcasting experience on TV, radio and the Internet, finding something in the industry he’s not familiar with would equal finding the needle in the haystack. On top of all of that, for the last 10 years, Roger has been involved with one of the strongest tools that exist in the efforts of keeping the blues alive and that’s educating young people about the genre. Through his involvement with the Blues in the Schools Program, he does just that.