FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chris Sautter

June 11, 2004 202-244-3111

(Northampton, MA) A documentary film about Massachusetts singer-songwriter Roger Salloom makes its Boston-area debut at the Regent Theatre in Arlington on Thursday, July 8 th at 7:30 PM. The film entitled So Glad I Made It: The Saga of Roger Salloom, America’s best unknown songwriter is the work of award-winning filmmaker Chris Sautter of Washington, D.C. Salloom is best known for the 1968 song Marie Le Peau he recorded while with the band Salloom, Sinclair, and the Mother Bear, and for the solo release (Gotta Get) Out of Worcester.

Sautter said, “Roger Salloom is one of the most talented songwriters of his generation, yet commercial success has somehow eluded him. This film is about more than the music of a talented singer songwriter. It’s about the struggle of an artist to be who he really is. It’s about refusing to give up on a dream, even if that dream changes as you grow older.”

The film, which was shot in Western Massachusetts, New York City, Woodstock, N.Y., and San Francisco in 2002-3, follows Salloom as he tries to revive his career after giving up on the music business for 20 years. The film also traces Salloom’s career from his roots as a folk singer in Worcester and in college to the heady days of the late 1960s San Francisco music scene when Salloom as leader of a psychedelic rock band which shared the stage at the Fillmore and Avalon Ballrooms with now legendary rock figures like Santana, Van Morrison, and Procul Harem.

Sautter said his interest in Salloom dates back to the late 1960s when both were students at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. “In those days, Roger Salloom was a very charismatic folk singer turned rock-and-roller who some hailed as the next Bob Dylan,” Sautter said.

One of those was Marshall Chess of the legendary Chess Records label who signed Salloom and his band to a recording contract. The band, Salloom, Sinclair, and the Mother Bear, released a critically acclaimed album which received airplay on a handful of burgeoning FM stations in Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. But shortly thereafter Chess Records was sold and Marshall Chess left the label to become President of Rolling Stone Records. With that Salloom lost his most effective promoter and his career stalled. After stints in the 1970s as a songwriter in Nashville and with the remnants of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Salloom returned to Massachusetts and settled in Northampton to raise his family.

Sautter said the film includes a reunion scene with Salloom and Marshall Chess at Chess’

home outside of Woodstock, NY, their first meeting in over 30 years. Salloom wrote several new songs which are included in the film, as are several other songs from throughout his music career. In addition, the film features live performances by Grammy Award winners James Cotton and The Blind Boys of Alabama.

Sautter’s first film, The King of Steeltown, won “Best Political Documentary” honors at the New York International Independent Film Festival in 2001. Sautter, who is also an attorney, heads up the Washington, D.C. political media firm Sautter Communications.

So Glad I Made It premiered recently to much acclaim at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Montana. The film also won 3 rd place at the International Film and Video Festival documentary competition in Redondo Beach, California. The Pioneer Valley Advocate called the music in So Glad I Made It “phenomenal.”

The film’s screening will be followed by a question and answer session with Sautter and Salloom. Salloom will also perform an “encore” of several songs.

Two additional Massachusetts screenings of So Glad I Made It have been scheduled. First, the film will be screened on Thursday, June 10 at 7 PM at the Academy of Music in Northampton. And, on Friday, June 18 at 7 PM, the film will be screened at the Bijou Community Cinema, 110 Front, Worcester. Roger Salloom and Chris Sautter will be present at all of these screenings, and Salloom will at each.