NHP man rocks guitarists’ world

Richard Tedesco

When he started competing in the Sam Ash guitar contest last fall, New Hyde Park resident John-Joe Michael Roarty was playing an Ibanez electric guitar.

Now, after playing his way through a regional competition and winning the finals in Los Angeles in January, he owns four of them – one of them a custom Ibanez electric guitar worth more than $5,000.

“I stretch pretty far. I cover all styles,” said the 41-year-old Roarty, who started playing 30 years ago, listening to everything from Sam Cooke to Led Zeppelin.

It all happened as a matter of coincidence, to hear Roarty tell it. He was shopping in the Sam Ash store in Carle Place last September when he saw signs for the national guitar playoff contest featuring Steve Vai, a solo guitarist who happens to be Roarty’s personal favorite.

“I didn’t know that just by chance, there was a contest going on,” he said.

At a playoff in October, each of the half dozen guitarists competing had to plug in and play riffs over several Steve Vai tracks.

Roarty did his thing, won a limited edition Ibanez and a Spider IV amplifier and advanced to the regional phase at the Sam Ash store on 48th Street in Manhattan. On that stage, Roarty again triumphed over the other seven players in the competition.

“You had to perform to five or six original pieces of Steve Vai over his tracks ,” he recalled.

He won an Iabenez RG series guitar in the regional competition, and brought it with him to play in the finals in Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles on Jan. 12, he played over a Vai tune called “Juice” in a competition that he vividly recalled, both because he won and because he and his competitors were a source of mutual encouragement for one another.

“It’s amazing. I’ve been the most popular musician in my head for the past 25 years,” Roarty said. “It was really fun. All the guys were really nice. They were really very supportive.”

Now that he’s won the competition, Roarty – who works full-time as a studio producer – foresees more opportunities to work outside the studio as a musician. He also sings and has played several Christian music venues over the past several years, including Samantha’s Little Bit of Heaven, a Christian coffeehouse in East Northport.

“Now the plate is open to do a lot of stuff,” he said. “Hopefully this competition will open more doors. Mostly I’ve been cacooned in the

studio.”

Winning the competition also means promotional opportunities – perhaps with Ibanez guitars, he said.

Samples of his guitar licks can be heard online at www.soulandemotion.com.

Ironically, he might not have developed his ability on the guitar if his mother had permitted him to follow his initial percussive instincts when he wanted to learn to play the drums instead.

He did start to diversify musically when he started attending New Hyde Park Memorial High School in his sophomore year, playing drums and bass in bands there under the tutelage of Robert Evans, who is now retired.

Now, Roarty is excited about what his musical future may hold.

“I’m a solo artist. I could be in any situation,” he said.

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