
DATE: Sunday, July 6, 1997                  TAG: 9707040229
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 34   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

SOLO PERFORMER GIVES ACOUSTIC A TOUCH OF THE BLUES

In recent months, acoustic music on the Outer Banks has become more popular than ever.

And Michael Des Roches is poised to push the genre even further with his stoked brand of what might be termed ``blues-infused acoustic.''

``I'm somewhere between the delta and Detroit,'' says the 38-year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist. ``I take rock songs and blues them up.''

With his husky voice and fingerstyle playing on a Guild D-25 (and occasionally a Gibson Hummingbird) guitar, Des Roches doesn't really sound like anybody else.

``I try to make it sound like it does in my living room,'' he says. ``I don't use any effects. It's closer to unplugged.''

Des Roches spent most of his life in upstate New York, but has been performing on the Outer Banks since 1990.

He moved here full-time in 1995 after meeting a Nags Head hairstylist who recently became his wife.

``She really changed my life,'' Des Roches says. ``Life is good.''

Indeed it is for the Kill Devil Hills resident. Des Roches is busier than a beaver in a lumberyard this summer. The singer/guitarist plays at Quagmire's every Friday night and at the Carolinian on Wednesdays and Sundays. Throw in one-nighters at Barrier Island, the Fish Market and the Froggy Dog and you have a full-time musician.

``This is what I've always wanted to do,'' says the one-time computer consultant. ``It only took me 23 years to do it.''

In performance, Des Roches infuses the blues into songs by The Beatles, Eric Clapton, James Taylor, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Subdudes and Lyle Lovett.

Lovett ``is one of my favorites,'' Des Roches says. ``I like his chord patterns and the way he turns a phrase.''

The top three requests Des Roches says he gets on the Outer Banks are ``Oh Darlin''' by the Beatles, ``Steamroller'' by James Taylor and ``Treetop Flyer'' by Stephen Stills.

Des Roches also has a dozen original songs he throws into the act. And he hopes one day to record the tunes for an album.

``It boils down to time and money,'' he says. ``Usually one or the other runs out.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Michael Des Roches is an acoustic guitar player and singer who plays

at Outer Banks area nightclubs.

Graphic

HOW TO HEAR HIM

Who: Michael Des Roches

What: Solo acoustic guitarist/singer/songwriter

Where and When: Fish Market in Nags Head on Saturday. Carolinian

in Nags Head on Wednesday and Sunday. Froggy Dog in Avon on

Thursday. Quagmire's in Kill Devil Hills on Friday.

Cost: No cover charge