FPCNC Open Mic: Diverse Expressions
Featured Performance by Stephen Peter Rodgers
You are invited to an evening to share music and/or poetry (originals and covers welcome)!
- Open Mic is from 7-8:30pm
- Featured Performance is from 8:30-9pm
- 2 song limit and a 7-minute max time allowance
- You must sign up before the event or in person the night of the event between 7-8pm.
Contact Nick Depuy at nickdepuysite@gmail.com to sign up and for more information.
More about Stephen Peter Rodgers:
Spanning three decades, Stephen Peter Rodgers life in music has taken many forms: songwriting, performance, entrepreneurship, production, and a deep commitment to building creative communities. He is currently signed to Bigger Beast Records and will be releasing new music throughout 2026.
Rodgers owns Tiny Bunker Recording Studio in Connecticut, where he produces, records, and develops singer-songwriters working in Americana, roots music, indie folk, and indie rock. He has been immersed in the New Haven music scene for most of his life.
In his teens and twenties, Rodgers was the leader and frontman of the ’90s/2000s indie rock band Mighty Purple. The band released seven albums and toured nationally for a decade. In 2003, he opened a music venue complex in Hamden, Connecticut, where he played a role in the lives of thousands of musicians. After exiting ownership in 2018, Rodgers turned inward, focusing deeply on songwriting and artistic work, including his parallel work in miniatures and art.
That same year, Rodgers lost his singing voice completely for over a year. During the recovery process, which included vocal cord surgery, he immersed himself in learning new instruments and re-approaching music from a different perspective. When his voice returned, quieter, deeper, and more textured, so did a transformed artistic outlook that was more internal, more peaceful, and more connected to nature and his spiritual roots.
Today, Rodgers gravitates toward vintage soundscapes that are earthy and real, blending gothic Americana, folk, and classic country leanings. It’s the kind of music that lives in reflective spaces where sorrow softens and something hopeful begins to emerge.
He believes this newest batch of songs is the strongest material he has written and feels he is only beginning to scratch the surface of what lies ahead.
