Biography
Iowa's
Legendary Singer Songwriter
Roger LaBarge

Roger was the kid you think of when you think of Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn.  Roger grew up with Iowa rivers in his blood.  As soon as he was old enough he had a fishing pole in his hands.  He had forts on the islands, homemade pontoons made with old wood and barrels, and old stone railroad bridges that crossed over a number of rivers that he called his own, prowling, fishing, and playing on all thru his childhood days. Roger was born next to the Des Moines River. raised in Cedar Rapids Iowa right next to the Cedar River. He spent many childhood days and weeks in Stone City Iowa at his Grandma Pearl's house next to the Wapsie River as well.

Roger started going to Guttenburg, and Harpers Ferry Iowa to fish as a young boy and
continued into his teens and 20's and now lives in Harpers Ferry Iowa. There he continues to fish the Mississippi, Yellow, Upper Iowa, Turkey, Volga and various trout streams in the area.

Roger LaBarge is a true"River Travilin Man" as he sings in one of his songs.  His river songs are well known where he comes from and they are beginning to be known all up and down the Mississippi River in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.  Roger has had much heartache and many triumphs in his 5 decades of musical experience.  He has wrote his own music for almost 4 decades, starting in 1969.  Roger's river music is about his experiences on and about the river, river folk, river towns and river life in general.  Combine this with all of the other songs Roger has wrote over the years and you end up with over 400 original songs. Roger's original music can make you laugh, bring you to tears and take you on a journey of life's trials and tribulations that will touch your very soul and make you yearn for more.

Now this is where I would like to end with the "Roger LaBarge Story", but so much has been wrote, talked about and who knows what else that simply isn't true, I must tell this next part. 


Over the years there have been many things wrote about this one of a kind Iowa Singer Songwriter.  Alot of the articles are true, and alot of them have been absolutely false.  I thought it time to set the record straight. It is true Roger's life and history are facinating, and his history makes for great conversation.......we only hope that after reading his history and knowing the truth.......and if you wish to converse about Roger LaBarge, you will first get the stories right.  Thanks for taking the time to know the real deal along with what is true, and what is not............Kathy LaBarge

Of all the stories about singer songwriting guitar players from Iowa or just about anywhere else this may be the most fascinating and griping story you have ever read.  Roger's musical career started in the mid 50's in Cedar Rapids Iowa where his Grandmother buys him an accordion at Boddicker's School Of Music.  Roger starts playing accordion at age six. Boddicker's had alot of great to become musicians taking lessons then, cats like Micheal Boddicker, Ronnie DeWit, and Dennis McMurrin joining the Boddicker Crowd in the early 60's as far as great CR musicians go and more.  At age seven he plays in a concert with Nashville's then 50's and 60's star Carl Smith. This is a Christmas concert for Wilson's Meat Packing Company where his Grandfather works.The concert is held at the Cedar Rapids Veteran's Memorial Colliseum. What an experience for a little boy.  He also does this again and age eight. There is alot of time spent here singing to 45's on his little record player.  Roger's Grandmother is also very religious and has him always playing in church, along with a ton of school appearances and many recitals at Boddickers School Of Music. He does this right up until he is about 14, 15  years old. This gives Roger a ton of experience and he aquires an great stage presence.  Between ages 15 and 17 he basically stops playing the accordion and just sings alot in his room with his 45's on his little record player standing in front of his mirror, in the car or where ever he can get away with it.  At this time he doesn't know it but he was simply born to be an entertainer. About this time Roger takes his first trip to Venice California and is quickly reborn as a hippie, he is almost 17 yrs old.  Roger spends about 4 months in Venice and Santa Monica selling hot dogs at Jacks on the Santa Monica Pier and is really turned on to the sounds he is hearing at the little coffee house down on the board walk,  the sound he is hearing is a young but soon to be mega star  "Bob Dylan" .  Roger returns to Iowa and is convinced that he wants and should be a guitar player.  He goes to Boddickers School of Music with his Grandmother and they buy a bass guitar, small amp, and he's is ready to start learning this instrument.  He gets the bass home and quickly realizes that this really isn't what he wants to play, he would rather have a 6 string guitar, it just seems more interesting to him after playing the accordion for so long.  He and his Grandmother go back to Boddickers to trade the bass in for a regular guitar.  It just so happens that in the store that day was a very young guitar player who caught Roger's eye and ear. He asks for some advice and ends up buying a very early black Les Paul Custom Guitar with a old Fender amp and is on his way.  The young man who helps him ends up being a life long friend of Rogers and is a Legend in Iowa when it comes to Guitar Players.  His name is non other than Dennis (Daddy-O) McMurrin as he is called today.  Roger plays his new electric guitar and likes it, he realizes tho that it is not exactly the sound he has been listening to alot of in California.  Somewhere around this time he meets a couple of new friends, Rod Dickenson and Danny Orhuse and they play classical guitars, not classical music but folk music and jam on classical guitars. This music sounds really cool and so he decides he wants one of these Guitars also.  Roger gets a Goya Classical Guitar. He loves this instrument.  He takes about 1 months worth of lessons and is learning really fast.  He reads bass and treble clef really well from playing the accordian so long and learns himself mostly from books.  He learns so fast that he is offered a really neat opportunity at Boddickers.  He is offered to teach guitar and he becomes a guitar teacher. Another great opportunity comes along as well, it didn't seem so great at first because it was so hard to do, but it ends up being a very important and essential thing when it comes to Roger's skill & style in music as the years go by. A  Horn Player who use to have an orchestra called the Del Clayton Orchestra lives in Cedar Rapids and teaches at Boddickers and also plays in a quartet around Cedar Rapids Called "The Del Clayton Quartet". The band consists of a upright bass player(very cool cat named Toney), drummer (Dells son), guitar player ( soon to be Roger), and Del on Clarinet and Saxophones & Organ. The guitar player has to quit with Del for awhile so he comes and asks Roger if he would be interested in playing some jobs with him.  This is overwhelming when Roger sees what they are doing, all old Jazz Standards, in medleys, you know like 4 songs in a row and everything is read in Bb,Eb & Ab wrote for horns.  This means the guitar player has to play jazz chords all the time. Roger would have to play his share of leads in these keys also.  Roger is blown away and tells Del he can't do it,  Del says yes you can I will help,  you have a month to get ready. Roger goes and buys some Mickey Baker Jazz books and Del helps and he makes the job and works with Del off and on for approximately 2 years.  This is the beginning of Roger's professional career in music.  Roger says he will never forget the work he had to put into learning all the Jazz stuff.  He said he would practice sometimes 8 to 10 hours a day, literally play, eat, sleep awhile, and start all over. Learning this Jazz music has really influenced his music and writing over the years, he is very grateful for having this experience. During this time Roger also takes two more short trips to Venice California and becomes tuned in to groups like Buffalo Springfield, The Jimmie Hendrix Experience, Cream, and others.  This music, especially Buffalo Springfield influences him very deeply.  Also during this time period he gets stoned one day and stops to have his car washed, when he uses the Vacuum Cleaner outside he sets his 600 dollar Classical Guitar on the top of the machine outside the car, you guessed it, he drives off and that is the end of the Handmade Swedish Goya Classical Guitar.  When he thinks of it today it still makes him sick.  What this did though was made him have to look for another guitar.  He ends up buying a Guild D-40 Steel String Flat Top which he really likes.  He also gets a wonderful opportunity and picks up another great sounding classical guitar .  This guitar is an unbelievable sounding guitar and he finds out on down the line that it is a hand made Spanish Classical which he simply loves. Now it comes to the point where he stops playing with Dell and decides that he would like to start trying to do some folkie type stuff by himself.  He plays and sings alot for his friends and they all tell him man you sound real good by yourself and you need to do it that way.  At this time period in Cedar Rapids there really isn't anyone doing this ( late 1969 or somewhere around that time period).  Roger  knows a lady that works at a steak and seafood restaurant and she talks to the manager and gets him an audition, he gets hired and starts playing there.  Roger starts with approximately 30 tunes and about 8 or so of them are his own.  He has to play from 9 till 1, so it isn't real easy.  He says he remembers playing most of them twice, a few three times. He starts playing at a number of other restaurants in the area after this job and also opens the door for many other folks in the area to start doing the same.  He says that he believes he was the first to start the solo acts in Cedar Rapids and then Dennis (Daddy-O) McMurrin joins in and the CR folkie and solo type scenes gets rolling.  At age 19 Roger also gets married has a son and is turned on to his first Heroin which ends up being a down fall for him for a number of years to come.  Between 19 and 23 years of age Roger plays various clubs in Cedar Rapids, all folkie type stuff, writes new tunes, has another son, and messes with Heroin.  The Heroin slowly becomes more and more of a problem. He actually goes out to San Francisco and plays in a trio at Fisherman's Warf and  Ghiradelli Square for a couple of months here also, but starts using Heroin again and heads back to Iowa before it gets to bad.  When he is playing music and staying away from Heroin everything is going great, he is playing in the nicest places in Cedar Rapids & on the road & packing the houses.  When he is messing with Heroin he is not doing well at all.  The Heroin finally wins out and he ends up with all of his guitars and equipment in the hock shop and starts stealing to support his habit.  He finally gets into enough trouble because of his Heroin use that he is sentenced to 10 years in Iowa's Prison Reformatory at Anamosa Iowa in late 1973.  Roger is very lucky being sent to Anamosa.  Lawrence LaBarge is the Deputy Warden at the Anamosa Prison & has been for years  (as fate would have it).  This is Roger's Uncle and he ends up only being incarcerated for one year.  During his year in Anamosa he gets his guitar sent in and plays tons of music along with writing many new tunes.  He actually puts on a Christmas Concert at the end of 1973 which either WMT or KCRG (Cedar Rapids Iowa TV Station), he can't remember which one, comes and films some of it and puts it on the television news at night.  I doubt that this has ever been done again.  He now is moved to a logging camp for minimum workers being released from prison which is in the Yellow River Forest in NE Iowa (very close to where Roger lives now).  He stays there for about 4 months.  During his stay he plays alot more music and writes some more tunes and works at Backbone State Park.  He actually does his first copywrites then, which at that time you had to write out completely, music and words, and sends them into the Library of Congress.  Between his release from prison (Jan. 1974) and approximately 1980 Rogers music career is up and down. He writes alot of music and plays all over the place.  When he's off the Heroin he is flying high with his music, when he's on the Heroin everything he has is back in the hock shop. He plays all over Iowa in this time period including lots of river towns all along the Mississippi River (he has always wrote lots of great river music along with his other music).  He even is sent down to Nashville to play at George Jones Possum Holler (the biggest club on printers alley at the time), and to have George listen to some of his original tunes. He has two meetings where he is suppose to play his material, George doesn't show at either.  This was an unbelievable experience though because he plays for two weeks straight every night during the cocktail hour.   At night he is seated in the VIP section and has to come running on the stage two sing two songs with the Tommy Williams Band.  This band had won two or three Grammy awards in a row for being the best house band in Nashville.  If your old enough you may remember Tommy Williams. He was the fiddle player with the go-tee on the He Haw show who would always play with Roy Clark.  Roger is also selected to play on Iowa's first annual album "First Flight" in 1979.  He does a song on there called "The Mississippi" with Dennis (Daddy-O) McMurrin & Dan Johnson.  This was neat because if you have the album on the back it tells you about a contest that was held to find all of the songwriters with original Iowa songs.  He never even entered the contest.  It just happened that at one of the places he was playing one of the Promoters heard him and one of his original Iowa songs and said he had to be on the Album.  You can still find some copies of this floating around if you look.  There are some great Iowa musicians on it also.  In 1979 another guy see's Roger perform and comes to him with another deal.  He tells him, "man you have some great material, what would you like to do with your career", Roger tells him I would like to do an Album of original material, he says, lets do it, I will pay for it.  Roger gets the best musicians in the area, his friend Dennis (Daddy-O) McMurrin, Dan Johnson and others and they start recording his album.  The album is almost completely finished, only a couple of small things to do, and this guy goes bankrupt and the project is halted.  This triggers Roger into a Heroin binge that costs him everything at the time.  All of his equipment ends up in Hock again,  he begins stealing , and finally gets into enough trouble again that he is back in Jail and on his way to prison for a 2nd  10 year sentence.  This time his wife divorces him and he looses everything he has except for a Martin D-35 which he had bought in the mid 70's. They say his instruments are still being played in the CR area to this day.  Roger now meets another guy in prison that plays guitar and they do alot of playing together. They actually put on a concert for all of the men.  The prison has a great music room and a good recording studio.  He writes more songs and records a couple of cassettes worth of original songs and does his 2nd copyrights.  This time you can use cassettes which make it much easier.  Roger is lucky again also, his Uncle is still the Warden.  He only is inside the walls for about 6 to 8 months and then is sent to a medium security prison at Mt. Pleasant Iowa.  He leaves the prison though writing and recording alot of good original music.  Roger is in Mt. Pleasant for a few months.  During his stay there he continues to play and write.  He works for the Warden there and puts on one concert for all of the staff & inmates, they love the music.  From here he is sent to a minimum security prison in Newton Iowa.  He continues to write here and play alot.  He soon is released to a work release program in Cedar Rapids Iowa; this would end up being a mistake. Coming back to Cedar Rapids puts him right back in the Lions Mouth when it comes to the Heroin.  He has lost everything except one guitar and really shouldn't be in that town.  He makes his work release barely, lasts about two months on the streets and is stealing again to support a Heroin habit.  He is arrested again and sent back to Prison for a 3rd stay.  When Roger gets back to the prison his guitar playing friend is still there but going to be released very soon.  He is from Chicago and tells Roger that he should try to get an out of state parole and come to Chicago and play music with him.  This would be great for Roger because it is easier to get an out of state parole and he really needs to get away from Cedar Rapids and start all over, new friends, new music, and a whole new life.  Roger and his friend play as much as they can before his friend is paroled to Chicago.  Roger doesn't stay very long behind the walls.  His Uncle is still Warden (thank god) and within 6 months and due to over crowding he is sent back down to Mt. Pleasant Iowa's Medium Security Unit.  He goes right back to work for the Warden and starts writing more music.  He also puts another concert on for the staff and inmates again.  In about 3 months he is then transferred to Newton Iowa's Minimum Security Unit again.  He goes back to his same job and keeps on playing and writing more music.  He puts in for an out of state parole and in about 4 months he is paroled and on his way to Chicago to start a new life.  At first he works with his friend at his friend's sisters cleaning service and plays on the side.  Soon they start getting alot of gigs and he is able to start playing his music full time again.  Roger and his friend start playing at alot of good folk clubs around the area.  They are even offered to do an album and have a meeting with folk legend "Bob Gibson" and to have him listen to some of their music.  Soon after this meeting Roger's partner and musician friend dies at age 30 from a heart attack overdose of drugs and Roger is on his own again and the album project is put on hold.  Before Roger's friend dies they play a few times at a famous folk club in Valparaiso Indiana called "The Court".  At the court he meets the love of his life and wife now "Kathy Rhowe"  (thats me).  Shes a waitress there and they start dating and fall in love.  She has three children but Roger doesn't care, he loves her and gets along great with the Children, so they move in together.  Roger has been released from Parole and is now living in Indiana.  He now plays in a Band for short time, (Lead and Rhythm, & vocals,), and also meets another acoustic guitar player from Hobart Indiana.  Roger gets out of the band and starts playing in a duo again.  They play alot of covers and some of Roger's original music as well.  He is still writing new tunes also.  He also sends some tunes down to Nashville "You Can Be a Star" television show and is asked to perform on it which was very cool.  They also open for the Beach Boys, Shirelles, and Brian Hyland at The Burlington Iowa Fair.  His life is finally on track now and he is really doing well at this time but things are about to change drastically.  This change will all have to do with his relationship now.  Before Roger met Kathy she had just come off of a terrible violent marriage with a man that almost beat her to death.  She had been with him for almost ten years and just came back from Texas, filed for a divorce, and was working at the Court Restaurant, and living with her parents in Chesterton Indiana.  Her Relatives all seem to really love Roger, at first.  They could see how much the children liked him and how much Kathy loved him.  The Children had even asked him if they could call him dad.  Now what Roger didn't know was that Kathy's father was an ex policeman of some kind and her brother in law was a Chesterton Police Officer.  One night the Brother in Law Policeman decides to run a record check on Roger, this is suppose to be illegal but he had the means to do it.  Roger had a long record from his early years of Heroin use to his last prison release in the early 80's.  I would like to note here that all of Roger's crimes were for non violent offenses; he never had any violence of any kind on his record.  As soon as the brother in law policeman gets a hold of Roger's record things start to change immediately.  The brother in law policeman takes it over to Kathy's parents and they all change there minds about Roger very quickly.  They never stop to see that there is no violence on Roger's record, they only thought, oh no, Kathy is going from a very, very bad violent relationship to an even worse one. Roger remembers leaving the Court Restaurant after playing a job, stopping to pick the kids up at Kathy's parents house and Kathy coming out crying saying they have flipped and have a copy of your arrest record and told me to leave you and your to never come over here again.  Kathy told her parents she loved him and so did the children and she would never leave him.  Roger and Kathy's problems all start now.  Roger also breaks up with the guitar player he is working with and starts soloing again.  He is actually working now at one of the finest steak and seafood joints in the area making really good money playing 4 nights a week.  Kathy's family is still trying to get her to leave Roger and someone in the family gets the bright idea to start calling the Welfare on them.  They tell them you need to go over and check on the kids, Roger LaBarge has a long criminal record and we know the children are being mistreated.  The well- fare comes over to the house several times and every time they see the children are doing great and very happy but none the less they still come over.  Kathy's relatives believe if they do this enough Roger will get tired of it and leave her, then they will be rid of him.  This doesn't work though; Roger loves Kathy and the children and has know intentions of leaving.  One night one of Kathy's boys, the youngest, is pushed or jumps off of a bunk bed in the children's bedroom, he lands on Kathy's daughter who at the time is not quit 3 yrs old.  When he lands on her he ruptures a bowl in her stomach.  Soon she becomes very ill and Roger and Kathy rush her to the Hospital.  What happens after that is insane.  Someone from Kathy's family calls the welfare again from the Hospital.  You guessed it the Welfare get involved and after being called on Roger before (for no reason at all), they come to the conclusion that this must be child abuse and get the police involved also.  The children (the two boys), tell there story to everyone about how it happened and so do Kathy and Roger.  It doesn't make any difference.  They take Kathy's children away and in know time at all arrest Roger for child battery and Kathy for child neglect, unbelievable!!!  Roger goes to court which doesn't take place for almost a year. The police also tell Roger in the meantime, guess what, if you don't plead guilty to this and take 6 years in prison we are also going to charge you with this new law, it is called the Habitual Criminal Law. This law means if you have a record we can also give you an extra 30 years for having one. Roger tells them they are crazy!, he didn't do this and he will not plead guilty to something he didn't do.  In the meantime he keeps playing and writing music also and has a couple of great opportunities beginning to develop in Nashville and California.  He never believes in a million years he will be convicted for something he didn't do.  Roger and Kathy finally end up in court. The trial is a joke, Roger doesn't stand a chance, they have no money to really fight this (and have no idea that they are in Porter County Indiana and you better have alot of money if your ever going to win in court, fighting anything there).  With no surprise Roger is found guilty.  He is out on bond so they let him wait out in the Hallway with Kathy while the Jury goes to deliberate on this new charge which carries 30 years.  Roger and Kathy already had talked over what he was going to do if things went bad,  and they had a feeling they were by the way things were being ran.  Roger new they were getting ready to give him 42 years for a crime he didn't even do,  this would have been a death sentence for him; he was already 37 yrs old.  Roger walks down the stairs and leaves in his van and is now a guitar playing fugitive and running for his life.  Kathy doesn't leave with Roger because she is 8 months pregnant with Roger's and her's soon to be daughter Mandy.  She is out on bond so she is in no trouble for Roger's leaving.  Roger makes his way to Oregon.  Kathy knows that they are getting ready to try and take Mandy as soon as she is born because of the ridiculous charges they have on her, so she goes into hiding.  When Mandy is born Kathy catches a plane to Oregon and Roger, now they are both fugitives.  Roger's father lives in Oregon and takes care of them. Roger only had a change a cloths and his Martin D-35.  Kathy has one suitcase and their baby daughter Mandy.  Roger sells his Martin D-35 at this point to get them by.  It doesn't take long and the police find out Roger's father lives in Oregon.  Before you know it Roger and Kathy are leaving his Dad's out the back door while the cops are knocking on the front.  The next thing you know they are in an 18 wheeler heading back across country.  By now their money has dwindled to almost nothing as well.  After about 6 different big rigs and a weeks worth of riding and staying in different truck stops they end up in a truck stop south of Minneapolis Minn. with their baby daughter, 15 dollars, and one suitcase.  This is where Roger's professional music career is put on hold for the next 15 years.  They now go by "The Halbergs",(a name giving them by Roger's now diseased baby sister Gina), and live completely different lives. Early on though Kathy buys Roger a Guitar at a garage sale so he does have an instrument to play and write music with.  As soon as Mandy is 3 years old she wants to play also, and she starts singing as soon as she can open her mouth.  Kathy finds two little guitars at a garage sale and makes one good guitar and Roger starts teaching Mandy at age three.  For the next 15 years he puts all of his time in teaching Mandy how to play and sing and be an entertainer.  They play their first concert in Kindergarten and over the years many other small school concerts and social events.  They even play fairs later on and win a number of 1st places as amateurs.  Roger also writes alot of new tunes in this time period too.  After 15 years there in southern Minnesota they are told the house they are renting is going to be torn down and they must move.  After 15 years here everything has become really expensive and they are not sure what to do.  They are fugitives and not like most people so it is a major deal for them.  They get on the internet and realize everything is high anywhere close to where they are now.  They do find some places in Northern Iowa.  The town is Marquette.  Roger says he loves it there and knows the town.  This is right by Harpers Ferry where he fished alot as a kid and also right by  the logging camp he was sent to after getting out of prison the first time.  They are a little worried because it is Iowa but they go for it and make the move and are now living in Marquette Iowa. This is where Roger decides to start playing professionally again. It is time to get Mandy working.  She needs the experience and they need the money to survive.  It just so happens that right across the river from Marquette is the town of Prairie Du Chien and in this little river town is a legendary bar called "The Main Entrance".  This has been a place for musicians of all calibers to play since the 70's when John Ramblin Burlingame became the owner.  This place is really cool with pictures of famous people who have played and amateurs alike all over the walls.  It has an open stage on Thursday nights and this is where Roger and Mandy play there first club together. After that they play in a talent contest at  the annual Fish Days Festival in Lansing  Iowa , they win first place and become great friends with a sound man from New Albin who ends up being a big part of Rogers and Mandy's 3 year career in this area.  He also records two CD's for them.  They are very well received in the area here and within a couple of weeks are asked to perform on a local radio station in Postville Iowa.  There they do a show and become friends with the sound man and he takes interest in them and Roger's original music.  He helps them get a small PA and they get there first job together at "Brenda's" bar and grill in Waukon Iowa.  Roger and Mandy become a popular act very quickly and start working a number of clubs and shows in the area.  In the next three years they accomplish alot, and also move from Marquette to Harpers Ferry Iowa.  They do another show on the Postville Radio Station and then have a CD made of the best of both shows, (only 150 copies were made as a special CD and it is very rare now),  they also release two river CD's, "Mississippi Bullhead Stew", and "Full Moon Over The River".  They also win 1st place in the Legendary Main Entrances first singer songwriter's Contest, play many other festivals, and were the main attraction in a few river towns during the Mississippi River's Grand Excursion. The grand finale of this 3 years was being asked to work for National Geographic and the BBC. They are asked to open the show for the Emmy Award Winning Movie Documentary US Premiere of Kenny Salwey's "The Last River Rat", which is being made into a real movie now.  They actually were getting so successful Roger was getting worried; after all he was still a fugitive.  Then one day in June 9th of 2005, it finally happened, there was a pound on the door and it was the US Marshals there to arrest Roger and Kathy after 18 years on the run. There success,  and a story about them being the longest running fugitives from Indiana ever,  had brought their story to light again and a US Marshall found them on the internet somehow and soon they were both on there way back to Indiana to face there old ridiculous charges.  Once they got back to Indiana everything had changed, by this time everyone, including most of the Law Enforcement and Kathy's family new Roger didn't do this. Roger's Heroin use was long in the past and neither Roger nor Kathy had even so much as had a traffic ticket in 18 years.  Both end up though with a bit of time, (Kathy sets four months, Roger gets one year),.  During Roger's stay in the county jail and a Indiana prison with 4'000 men he writes more music and dreams of getting back to Harpers Ferry and his family, friends, and beloved  river.  The people in NE Iowa were all wonderful thru this whole excursion and stuck by this family like you wouldn't believe.  They new this family by now and new this was all BS like everyone had figured out after all these years.Roger was released June of 2006.  Roger is now working again  after all these years.  Over the years this Iowa Singer Songwriter has wrote more than 400 original tunes, with close to 200 in the can (he calls this started but not finished music setting there waiting to be finished).  We hope now that you no the story you will give this Iowa singer songwriter a listen and check out all of his work, his musical career spans 5 decades and it is absolutely amazing.  His songs can make you laugh, bring you to tears, and take you on a journey of life's trials and tribulations that will touch your very soul and make you yearn for more.  It is time folks from Iowa & everywhere else take notice of this singer songwriter's work, and it is long overdue.  Now in closing as Roger would say, our time in this world is so very short, sometimes we loose track of this and some of it can get wasted, I don't want to waste anymore ".  Music is everything to me, my life, my love, my passion, and it has come full circle again".

I would Like to Add: This is just a tiny bit of the Roger LaBarge story as it rambles thru the years.  You can only hear the stories that come inbetween songs at his shows or if you are lucky enough to spend some time with him to hear him tell some of his stories.  There are a million heartbreaking and blow your mind stories!  I have been with Roger for over 20 years now and I am sure I probably have barely scratched the surface.....
Wrote By,
Kathy LaBarge (with help from Roger & friends) (C) 2007