Roomful Of Blues Celebrates 45 Live

45 Live, the new Alligator CD by Roomful of Blues is a live performance that celebrates the band’s 45 years. The band started as a jump blues oriented group inspired by the music of T-Bone Walker, Roy Milton, Johnny Otis, Big Joe Turner, Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson and the like, and even recorded behind Turner and Vinson for a couple of quite well regarded recordings. Over the years evolved into more of an modern urban blues band (think Bobby Bland’s Duke recordings). Originally Duke Robillard fronted the band on guitar and vocals and when he left, Ronnie Earl spent a stint on guitar with Chris Vachon eventually taking over that spot which he has held for a couple decades. Philip Pemberton has been handling the vocals for some time now. Roomful has become an institution, and I say that in a positive manner in having their having an immediately recognizable sound and approach to the music.

Recorded at The Ocean Mist in Rhode Island over three nights, the disc kicks off with the driving Just Keep On Rockin’, followed by the insistent modern urban blues It All Went Down the Drain, although on this latter number and the following Jambalaya, Vachon sounds like he is trying to copy Lonnie Mack’s tone. A cover of Magic Sam’s Easy Baby gives a chance for Vachon to stretch out with the horns riffing in support. That’s Right is a superb hot jump blues performance, and is that Rich Lataille who is wailing on tenor sax (Lataille has been with Roomful for 43 years). Lataille’s homage to Illinois Jacquet, Straight Jacquet, allows Lataille, fellow saxophonist Mark Earley and trumpeter Doug Wolverton (growling with his mute) to display their chops on a number that evokes Flying Home. There are also first rate renditions of Crawdad Hole, and Somebody’s Got To Go, that Big Joe Turner and Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson respectively recorded with Roomful thirty-five odd years ago. As good as these are, the interpretation of Jimmy Rushing’s I Left My Baby, is really special with Pemberton terrific and I suspect Buck Clayton would be smiling listening to Wolverton’s playing here.

Providing the foundation is the excellent rhythm section of keyboardist Rusty Scott (nice solos on Crawdad Hole and I Left My Baby); bassist John Turner, and drummer Chris Rivelli. They lay down the solid groove and cover a lot of blues genres as Rich Lataille notes, “Though we cover all the bases, our mainstay is horn-driven, hard honking R&B.” And there is plenty of that hard driving R&B here.

I received my review copy from Alligator Records. This is scheduled for release on July 30.

Andy Poxon Tomorrow

I first became aware of Andy Poxon as a mid-teen guitar prodigy with a distinctive red-haired afro. Recently I saw him with DC area saxophonist Scott Ramminger with whom he had shared a short tour and the two were playing songs from their respective recent releases. Listening critically I was struck by the maturity he displayed as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. These qualities led Duke Robillard to produce his new Ellersoul records recording Tomorrow. On the notes he observes that Andy “is a complete and mature musician at the ripe old age of 18.” Further Duke notes that how Andy arrived there was partially “derived from intense listening and research for the American traditions of of blues,early R&B, classic country hillbilly, rockabilly, swing and jazz.”

Tomorrow was recorded in Rhode Island under Duke’s supervision with his band of Bruce Bear on keyboards, Brad Hallen on bass and Mark Teixeira on drums with Duke adding guitar, and horns from Rich Lataille, Mark Earley and Doug Wolverton. With the exception of an instrumental Jammin’ At Lakewest, co-written with Duke, Poxon composed all of the performances.

The music on this is quite enjoyable as Andy has crafted songs that reflect his musical inspirations with a definite pop slant perhaps. His natural singing shares the appeal of the lyrics with elements of blues and classic R&B (a definite New Orleans flavor can be heard on several songs including the lively All By Myself). Other songs reflect his youthful experiences such as You Lied where he caught her with him and finds his baby has lied to him from the start and tore his world apart and College Boy, with its rollicking groove as his baby left him for some old mean college boy. The title track is a lovely ballad with a hopeful lyric and nice trumpet from Woolverton. 

Here is Andy Poxon with saxophonist Scott Ramminger at JVs in Falls Church.

In addition to his songs and vocals, his guitar playing stands out. With all these ear-splitting blues rock guitar prodigies being touted and promoted, it is refreshing to listen to Poxon’s guitar. One can hear elements of rockabilly mixed in with his straight blues attack. His attack, tone and the swing in his solos contrasts with the blues-rock of some of his contemporaries. A good case in point might be the closing Jammin’ at Lakewest. This is a jump blues instrumental feature for Poxon and Robillard, with swinging single note solos from both. Its certainly refreshing to hear a young guitarist who does take off from Stevie Ray Vaughan but rather channels such legends as Tiny Grimes, Al Casey, and Johnny Rogers.

It is tempting to talk about someone of Andy Poxon’s age as a performer that exhibits considerable promise and how interesting it will be to see how his music evolves. It must be stated that Tomorrow is a choice recording of blues and roots that stands on its own considerable merits.

I received my review copy from Andy. This review was written a couple months ago and I should have posted this earlier. Here is a short video clip of Andy and Scott Ramminger I took.