Roger Manning is a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

based singer-songwriter who plays an aggressive acoustic style of music. Manning, along with a small handful of other artists, composed the original New York City

anti-folk Anti-folk (sometimes referred to as unfolk) is a music genre that emerged in the 1980s in response to the remnants of the 1960s folk music scene. Anti-folk music was made to mock the perceived seriousness of the time's mainstream music scene, a ...

scene. On February 6, 1985, Manning was cited by New York City's

MTA police The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department (MTAPD) is the police agency of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority Officers of the MTAPD are fully empowered under the New York State Public Authorities Law and are com ...

for "entertain ngpassengers by singing, dancing or playing any musical instrument" on a subway platform. Manning mounted a legal challenge to the long-standing ban on busking and in September 1985, Judge Diane Lebedeff ruled in ''People v. Manning'' that busking was constitutionally protected. The ruling led to the establishment of the

Music Under New York Music Under New York (MUNY) is a part of the Arts & Design program by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) that schedules musical performances in transportation hubs across its rapid transit, ferry, and commuter rail systems. MTA gr ...

program. In December 1988,

SST Records SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was formed in 1966 by Ginn at age 12 as Solid State Tuners, a small business through which he sold electronics equipm ...

released Manning's first self-titled album, which he supported with a tour of North America, crossing the United States two and a half times. In 1990, he hosted the first season of the short-lived syndicated radio program "Soho Natural Sessions." Since 2001, Manning has made a living as a web designer in New York. In the mid-2000s, Manning was involved with Pacifica station

WBAI WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music. ...

in New York City, eventually joining the Pacifica National Board in 2004.

Discography

* ''Roger Manning'' (1988),

* ''Missile Foundation'' (1989), 109 Records — as Joe Folk and the Soho Valley Boys * ''Roger Manning'' (1992),

Shimmy Disc Shimmy Disc is a New York City-based independent record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. Before it was sold to the Knitting Factory, artists like Bongwater, Daniel Johnston, Fly Ashtray, Galaxie 500, King Missile, Boredoms, Ruins, Ween, Gwar ...

* ''Short, Sharp, Shook'' (1992) — "Lefty Bootlegs and Demos: Music, Words and Sounds" * ''Roger Manning'' (1995), Moll-Selekta (Germany); (1997),

Shanachie Records Shanachie Records is an American, New Jersey-based record label, founded in 1975 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins. The label is named for the Gaelic word ''seanchaí'' (anglicised as shanachie), an Irish storyteller. It was previously distribu ...

(U.S.) * ''Chyeah'' (1998) — as Joe Folk and the Soho Valley Boys * ''Roger Manning'' (2014), Roger Records * ''Roger Manning'' (2015), Roger Records — "make-under" version of ''Roger Manning'' (1998)

References

External links

Roger Manning
official website. * *
People v. Manning
' (Docket #5N038025V, 1985) Anti-folk musicians American folk musicians American singer-songwriters Living people Fast Folk artists Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-singer-songwriter-stub