Feet Rogers video?

[Peter Krebs]

Hey there! Does anyone know if there’s any video available of Feet Rogers? Live footage of the Sons of Hawai’i, maybe?
Thanks! Pete

[Michael Kiese]

Hey there! Does anyone know if there’s any video available of Feet Rogers? Live footage of the Sons of Hawai’i, maybe?
Thanks! Pete

Aloha Peter,

Feet is one of my favorite players to listen to.

I’ve searched and asked around. I have not found any video nor film of Feet, only the occasional live audio recording. If any video or film footage does exist, I’d love to see it as well.

Off the top of my head, Feet passed away from cancer in 1983, before the era of affordable home video camcorders.

The Sons of Hawai’i have a DVD documentary about them. They talk a lot about Feet, but even the documentary only had still photos of him.

I would think if any film footage did exist of Feet, it would have been included in the documentary.

[Peter Krebs]

Thanks for the info, Mike.
Feet’s playing is an inspiration for me as well. I was hoping to see some video of him playing to get an idea of how he did his harmonics - whether he used his knuckle or the side of his hand to get that wonderful, vocal-like, rich tone. Thoughts on that? Mahalo. Pete.

[Michael Kiese]

Thanks for the info, Mike.
Feet’s playing is an inspiration for me as well. I was hoping to see some video of him playing to get an idea of how he did his harmonics - whether he used his knuckle or the side of his hand to get that wonderful, vocal-like, rich tone. Thoughts on that? Mahalo. Pete.

That’s a good specific question, I’ll ask Bobby Ingano.

When I’ve seen Uncle Bobby play, he plays harmonics with the side of his palm for the “12th fret” harmonics.

If he plays the higher harmonics closer to the bar on the 5th or 7th fret, he will use the knuckle on one of his fingers.

Of course, all harmonics are relative to the bar, I just needed a way convey the different harmonic locations.

I noticed Alan Akaka has a similar approach for playing harmonics. He’s really good at them. Alan is uncanny in his accuracy for harmonics.

I would think both Uncle Bobby and Alan are using similar techniques. Perhaps they eye witnessed the Hawaiian steel masters of yesteryear and saw what they did. That's probably a good bet.

As for Feet specifically, the only other insight I can offer is that he likely used light strings (just my best guess and intuition) and he cranked his amps. Uncle Bobby told me the very first time he saw Feet play, it was through a silverface Fender champ with everything cranked all the way to 10, and it was mic’d with an SM58.

If you listen to old recordings of Gabby or Feet playing, there always is a little hair of overdrive on the amp. The amp is naturally at the edge of breakup. With a light touch, they're able to get really sweet clear tone. When they dig in, it overdrives a bit. It's kinda like their version of rock and roll, Hawaiian style, lol.

The Overdrive Breakup is on great display in the album Slack Key & Steel Guitar Vol 2 by the Maile Serenaders. It's on all streaming platforms. Gabby plays steel on Vol 2, and he really goes for it. You can hear the Hawaiian steel break up quite a bit because he's really digging in, and his amp is cranked. The steel sounds very sassy and fun. Feet plays steel on Vol 1. Feet's playing is more reserved than Gabby's, but you can still hear that his single note lines are right at the edge of breakup. The very first track "Ka Wai O Namolokama" is a steel feature. You can hear certain notes break up if you listen closely. That's the clue that Feet is playing very lightly and the amp is cranked.

If you ever hear some of the live "bootleg" recordings from the Sons of Hawai'i, Feet cuts loose a lot more than studio albums. You hear much more Overdrive breakup in his pick attack when Feet played live. He knew how to enjoy and have fun. He makes all kinds of sound effects with the steel during and in-between songs to make the audience laugh.

In summary, after all the research and experimentation that I have done, my findings are that Feet played with an extremely light and precise touch. He likely used light gauge strings and cranked his amps, usually using smaller tube amps. This allowed his harmonics to shine and sing. The tradeoff was that he was always riding the edge of disaster with his amp cranked like that, lol. One bad move and any clam would be extremely loud. The amount of precision and control he had was uncanny. That said, you still hear a clam here and there on live bootlegs from Sons of Hawai'i gigs.

Other than that, Uncle Bobby told me Feet’s favorite amps were Vox’s, the Cambridge Reverb to be specific (both tube and solid state). But he also played Fenders.

Feet really was a master, he played very simply, and had a fearless approach towards harmonics. Feet would play entire lines and melodies in harmonics. Nobody plays like that to this day. When you consider his methods and approach, it really can only come down to his touch. Crank the amp, and play with a very light touch.

Hope that helped!

[Peter Krebs]

Mike - thank you so much for your insights into Feet’s playing! They answer many questions and give me some ideas to ponder and try out on the steel. I’m glad you brought up his playful spirit - there seems to be a mischievous quality in his playing which is hard to pin down but that one can sense. I have the two CDs you mention and will listen to them today with fresh ears. Mahalo.

[Michael Kiese]

Mike - thank you so much for your insights into Feet’s playing! They answer many questions and give me some ideas to ponder and try out on the steel. I’m glad you brought up his playful spirit - there seems to be a mischievous quality in his playing which is hard to pin down but that one can sense. I have the two CDs you mention and will listen to them today with fresh ears. Mahalo.

My pleasure! I'm glad there are people out there that still know who Feet is, and enjoy his style of playing. He was a musician's musician. Never made it about him, always about the music.

Here's something you may appreciate, he was posthumously inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
https://hmhof.org/honorees/#morecontent

Take care, and enjoy!

[Joe Burke]

I’d love to hear these live “bootleg” recordings. Does anyone have a link? Or names of these recordings?

[Matthew Dawson]

I asked Alan Akaka. He said he isn’t aware of video, but when he had watched Feet play, and he used his palm for harmonics. Alan also pointed out that Feet would play pairs of harmonics on non-adjacent strings, and this would be difficult to do with a knuckle.

[Michael Kiese]

Well if Alan doesn’t know of any video footage, and there wasn’t any footage of Feet in the Sons of Hawaii documentary, it’s a pretty safe bet that no video/film footage of Feet exists, unless there exists some private family archival footage.