JONTAVIOUS WILLIS
West Georgia Blues
Strolling Bones Records – SB 40 CD
Simply put, West Georgia Blues, the third album by guitarist, singer, and songwriter Jontavious Willis, is a master class in down-home blues. At age 28, the maturity he exhibits on this new release speaks to the prescience of his debut album’s title, Blue Metamorphosis (2017). His steady evolution is evident in his second release, the Grammy-nominated Spectacular Class (2019), but with this recording, Willis has come into his own as a blues artist. It’s no wonder Taj Mahal called him “Wonderboy” when he first heard him at age 19 back in 2015.
There are no flashy production techniques on display; the recording is clear, immediate, and dynamic and sounds like the young musician could be holding forth from his family homestead’s front porch in Greenville, Georgia. The album’s 15 original selections are a mix of solo and band performances. On the non-solo tracks he draws on a supporting cast of sidemen, including Ethan Leinwand on keyboards; Jayy Hopp on drums, acoustic guitar, washtub drum, and vocals; Rodrigo Mantovani on acoustic bass; Jon Atkinson on guitar; and Lloyd Buchanan on vocals.
Willis has developed a distinctive identity. While it’s often clear which sources from the tradition he is drawing upon, he never sounds like he’s imitating some blues forebear. In addition to his growth as a singer/guitarist, Willis has matured as a songsmith. He’s mastered a broad array of styles and grooves, although he remains grounded in the Piedmont approach, and he’s a clever lyricist who can draw upon traditional tropes to deliver fresh and insightful commentary. There are echoes of Blind Willie McTell in Rough Time Blues, but Willis makes it relevant to the world today: “Use to take $100 you’d need help carrying your groceries back / Use to take a C note and you’d need help taking your groceries back / Now you take the same Franklin you can put everything in one sack (and you gotta pay for the sack).” His dedication to sustaining and extending tradition—not just blues but his family’s legacy—is evident in the title track, a soulful a cappella duet with Buchanan accompanied by handclaps: “I ain’t code switching unless I change my alarm / I ain’t code-switching unless I change my alarm / We grew up in the field but Grandaddy owned the farm.” And Willis doesn’t just sing the songs; he inhabits them, brings them alive with a blues-is-truth realism.
This is an album that invites listening from start to finish as Willis consistently serves up a wide palette of sounds and styles. Taj’s influence is apparent on the solo fingerpicked Charlie Brown Blues, the upbeat, full band testimony to the healing powers of the music of Keep Your Worries on the Dance Floor, and the sultry Who’s Gonna Hear It? He can be dark and haunting as he evokes Skip James on Broken Hearted Moan and Ghost Woman. And, he can deliver rocking and raucous numbers like Lula Mae, a paean to a touring blues diva in the tradition of Sterling Brown’s New Negro Renaissance poem Ma Rainey, or the searing West Side Chicago style electric slide showcase Lost Ball. With West Georgia Blues, Jontavious Willis puts the blues world on notice that the tradition is alive and well and that he’ll be a force in it for a long time to come.
—Robert H. Cataliotti
SHEMEKIA COPELAND
Blame It on Eve
Alligator – ALCD 5022
Much has already been made of Shemekia Copeland’s ostensible detour from the politically charged fare she’s focused on in recent years in favor of this release, which consists primarily of hot-blooded odes to the redeeming power of love in the face of catastrophe, erotic immolation, and heartbreak—but don’t be deceived. Celebrating life can be as radical and essential for victory as fighting the good fight; in fact, the two are inextricably intertwined. Here, Copeland melds hard-earned righteousness with her equally hard-earned, blues-infused, celebratory spirit to bring that truism to life.
The usual musical influences—deep blues (as in the John Lee Hooker–esque Tough Mother and the Jimmy Reed lope of Wine O’Clock), blues rock, gospel, and rootsy rock ’n’ roll—make themselves felt throughout in the arrangements and instrumentation masterminded by songwriter/producer/lead guitarist Will Kimbrough, along with his fellow songwriter and primary lyricist John Hahn (Luther Dickinson also weighs in with some characteristically roots-rich yet fiery fretwork on a couple of tracks). Out front, Copeland’s voice has lost none of its legendary ferocity, but she has learned to expose an unsheathed vulnerability alongside her life-toughened survivor’s grit. She caresses the lyrics of Belle Sorciere as tenderly as the brokenhearted Creole woman of the song’s storyline caresses her dying husband. Broken High Heels finds the singer assaulted by the terrors of modern-day life (“Maybe we’re done, maybe we’re doomed”), feeling as if she’s “dancing in a graveyard in broken high heels.” In Is Anybody Up There? Copeland and guest vocalist Alejandro Escovedo send up a prayer of desperation that, almost in spite of itself, transforms into an anthem of hope (“This place can be like heaven instead of a living hell”). Down on Bended Knee, an offering from the oeuvre of Copeland’s father, the late Johnny Copeland, is a bluesy tale of erotic obsession redeemed from bathos as it grinds and lopes with vintage Lone Star urban blues ferocity.
If there’s a theme holding all of these offerings together, it’s womanly power. Beginning with the title tune, the protagonists of these songs are women heroic in their refusal to submit, whether to the ravages of grief, sickness, social ills, romantic heartbreak, patriarchal mistreatment, or political malfeasance (“Wanna know how it feels to have the blues? Just try losing your right to choose”). The closer, Heaven Help Us All, a hymn set to a medium-tempo gospel rock backing, could serve as a summary of the entire set’s message: we live in a wounded world scarred by suffering yet infused with hope, uplifted by an ascending spirit that remains ours to claim if we can only summon the vision, the power, and—yes—the vulnerability to commit ourselves to it.
—David Whiteis
ZAC HARMON
Floreada’s Boy
Catfood Records – CFR-034
By now Zac Harmon is an elder statesman of the blues, a world-renowned, multiple award-winning musician, composer, and songwriter, comfortable in a wide spectrum of blues, from traditional to blues rock, from soul to funk. He started his professional career at just age 16, playing guitar with Sam Myers, a friend of his father’s. Two years later he was playing with Dorothy Moore, Z.Z. Hill, and other well-known blues artists who were passing through his Jackson, Mississippi, hometown. By now he is a big-time operator of the first order and here he brings on another artistic rocket.
Zac Harmon’s Floreada’s Boy is an amalgam of good old-fashioned soul music and fiery electric rockin’ blues. If this record had been released in 1973, several of the hot soul music cuts on this album could have been pop hits on Casey Kasem’s Top 40 radio show. Given the current pop music tastes for sterile, programmed music, chances are that Harmon will miss the R&B chart, but blues fans who love soul music will rave with joy, as soul is the natural continuation of the blues. In this big-production album, the famed singer/guitarist Harmon comfortably dwells in between both worlds, soul/funk and blues, accompanied by the full sound of his band, the Drive. He brought on 17 guest artists, singers, and session musicians, plus two horns sections, the LA Horns and the Texas Horns. The English guitarist Caleb Quaye, who played with Elton John, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and Hall & Oates, rounds out the band.
Produced by Christopher Troy and Zac Harmon, Floreada’s Boy is named after Harmon’s mother. Harmon described it as “a reflection of my 50 years of musical performance: from the juke joints of Mississippi to stages all over the world . . . of the rich musical environment that I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi.”
Every song on Floreada’s Boy is a keeper. On the blues side, Harman kicks it into overdrive with slashing guitar and the horns to bring you firecrackers like Big Dog Blues, a deep blues that could take its place right next to the best classics of the genre. There is plenty of funk, as in Let It Slide and Stress.
On the soul side there are five beautiful songs, most notably the languid and slow That’s the Way I Feel about Cha, with a distinct 1970s vibe featuring the great SueAnn Carwell. Never Forget is a gut-wrenching, broken-heart love song that could have fit perfectly on a Marvin Gaye or Ray Charles record. The blues has always had something important to say, and Zac Harmon is saying it as clearly as ever. He closes the album with the stunningly heavy, powerful, socio-critical, anti-gun violence song Stop the Killing. If he had recorded nothing but that poignant and impactful song, so imperative in our time, that alone would stand as a masterpiece, his magnum opus. If only people took it to heart. Stop the Killing should win every songwriting award on the planet if there is any justice. Sing it from the rooftops.
—Frank Matheis
SONNY GULLAGE
Go Be Free
Blind Pig Records – BPCD 5175
Go Be Free is being promoted as Kevin “Sonny” Gullage’s first album, but the New Orleans singer, pianist, and songwriter’s actual debut was at the helm of Kevin & The Blues Groovers on Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed Blues (2022). So, technically this is the young man’s (he’s 24) solo debut. He’s come under the aegis of ubiquitous Grammy-winning blues producer/drummer/songwriter Tom Hambridge, who’s made his mark working with an incredible array of blues and roots music talent, including Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Kenny Neal, Mike Zito, Joe Louis Walker, James Cotton, Johnny Winter, Susan Tedeschi, and, most prominently and extensively Buddy Guy. So, Gullage (who was featured in LB #285) might be earmarked as “the next big thing.” He certainly has the talent to fill that bill.
Hambridge whisked Gullage away from New Orleans to Nashville for the sessions and assembled a band of Music City professionals to back him up—Kenny Greenberg on guitar, Kevin McKendree on piano/keyboards, and Rob Cureton or Tommy MacDonald on bass. Hambridge handles the drumming and is co-composer of all the songs, most of them with Gullage. As with many of Hambridge’s productions, Go Be Free features a sonic polish that positions the recordings to attract the attention of mainstream listeners.
Like the Blues Groovers album, Go Be Free has a twin allegiance to blues and R&B. The first half of the album focuses on the latter. Stevie Wonder’s Do Like You echoes through the exuberant funk of Just Kiss Me, Baby and the punchy, organ-driven rock and soul of Things I Can’t Control bring Billy Preston to mind. The title track rides on Hambridge’s big gospel beat, and Gullage’s vocal is marked with a swinging passion. Things go a bit in the pop direction with Separate Ways, a tune that wouldn’t be hard to imagine Michael McDonald singing. They don’t pull any punches digging into the blues, as Kingfish’s smoldering guitar work highlights Gullage’s impassioned vocal on the socially conscious Worried About the Young. He shows off his piano prowess, rockin’ the 88s on the 12-bar Blues All Over You. The dedication to boogie is also evident on File It Under Blues, which showcases Greenberg’s guitar. Gullage exhibits a Little Richard–like fervor on the steamroller boogie of Stop That Stuff. Another blues standout is the steamy, after-hours, piano-driven, Bobby Bland–evoking Tattooed Wings. The album does a good job of highlighting Gullage’s strengths and establishing the former American Idol contestant’s versatility with tracks like the ballad I’ve Been There, the lumbering blues rock of Hot House, and Home to You, with its poignant gospel piano/organ dialogue. Go Be Free likely guarantees the blues and roots music world will be hearing a lot more from Sonny Gullage.
—Robert H. Cataliotti
SEAN RILEY & THE WATER
Stone Cold Hands
Pugnacious Records – 1316
Stone Cold Hands is the first full-length album release from New Orleans–based singer, guitarist, and songwriter Sean Riley and his band, the Water. A rootsy amalgam of country blues, zydeco, honky-tonk, and Cajun influences, it features nine Riley originals and one cover tune that reveal a promising artist who transforms his source material with a distinctive personal touch. Guest musicians harmonica and accordion player Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes and fiddler Waylon Thibodeaux add some local spice to enhance the South Louisiana flavor. Riley is an adept and versatile guitar man, often layering interlocking guitar parts. His voice is clear and soulful with a hint of a rural twang, and he writes captivating songs that capture the local milieu, enhanced by bassist Dean Zucchero’s straightforward, uncluttered production. Stone Cold Hands has a live sound that makes it feel like the band is in the room.
The program kicks off with Dance Me One More Time, a swinging, uplifting invitation to the dance floor that benefits from Barnes’ riffing accordion, Riley’s driving guitar, and a gospel-inspired trio of backup singers. Go Easy on Me draws on some Mississippi John Hurt–inspired fingerpicking guitar that builds momentum with Phil Breen’s surging organ and Riley’s electric guitar fills. With a groove that recalls Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, it would sound at home on a mid-1960s blues revival album. Barnes’ harmonica drives the chugging roadhouse rocker Truck Route Blues. Riley’s National Steel guitar and Barnes’ harmonica and accordion rock the gritty blues/zydeco Out All Night. Thibodeaux’s fiddle takes things to Cajun country on the two-step A Losing Hand and duels with Riley’s Dobro on the instrumental Rosie’s Rag. Riley delivers some deep blues with his loping cover of Jimmy Reed’s High and Lonesome and the slow blues Jump the Line, an electric guitar/harmonica showcase. Stone Cold Hands is a first-rate springboard for Sean Riley and the Water to build up a following on the blues and roots music scene.
—Robert H. Cataliotti
THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS
Struck Down
Stony Plain – SPCD 1495
Kim Wilson has been the fearless leader of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, a longtime premier blues outfit with a legendary following that goes as far back as 1974 to its early days in Austin, Texas. As the last man standing from the original lineup, Wilson is at the helm for the band’s first album in eight years, Struck Down, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. With nine original songs co-written by Wilson and Steve Strongman, the album finds Wilson blowin’ up a storm—delivering the hot and heavy harp playing that his audiences have come to expect. The tracks are totally stacked with cameo performance by guest artists including Elvin Bishop, Billy Gibbons, Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, Bonnie Raitt, and none other than the Mac’s own Mick Fleetwood.
Struck Down by the Blues opens with a stinging lick from Steve Strongman over a medium-tempo soul groove in the key of G minor. Wilson sings the crafty lyrics, “Playin’ the blues ain’t the land of milk and honey / You better pay your dues, cuz it ain’t about the money.” The song Don’t Make No Sense flaunts a Cajun-flavored boogie featuring Terrance Simien on accordion, while Bob Welsh pounds the piano keys in the perfect New Orleans style. This is followed by Payback Time, a ZZ Top–influenced blues rocker driven by the guitar work of Billy Gibbons, who sings background vocals in a call-and-response with Wilson, followed by some tasty lick-swapping between their harp and guitar.
The lone tune that wasn’t penned by Wilson and Strongman, Memphis Minnie’s vintage 1940 song Nothing in Rambling, is an all-out acoustic jam session between Keb’ Mo’ on vocals and slide guitar, Bonnie Raitt on acoustic guitar and vocals, Taj Mahal on slide guitar and vocals, and Mick Fleetwood on drums. This tune is nothing less than a Grammy Award–winning combination of blues veterans delivering their patented best—it’s by far the most unexpected and exciting surprise on the entire album.
The handclapping, soulful strut of Won’t Give Up finds Wilson slyly referencing the legendary Thunderbirds classic when he sings the sassy line “Don’t tell me I’m not tuff enuff,” while things cool down with The Hard Way, featuring Wilson, who effortlessly displays harp blowing prowess inspired by Little Walter. Watcha Do to Me is the hard-driving blues shuffle that appears right on time, as veteran guitarist Elvin Bishop takes the lead with a tasty solo. Other highlights include the guitar duel between Bob Welsh and longtime Thunderbird veteran Johnny Moeller on That’s Cold, as well as Wilson’s passionate vocal performance on the ballad that serves as the album’s closer, Sideline.
Produced by Wilson, Strongman, and Glen Parrish, there’s so much to like about this record. Released by Holger Petersen on his superb Stony Plain label, this disc is loaded with goodies, and will undoubtedly receive the kind of accolades it so deserves.
—Wayne Goins
GUY DAVIS
The Legend of Sugarbelly
M.C. Records – MC-0094
Guy Davis is a Renaissance man—an actor, author, director, and singer-songwriter who found his creative groove and stuck with it. He is a truehearted acoustic roots and blues performer down to the bone, a country bluesman from Harlem, New York. Notably, Davis dedicated his new album, The Legend of Sugarbelly, to harmonica maestro Phil Wiggins, who we recently lost. The two worked together as part of the True Blues tour, with Shemekia Copeland, Corey Harris, and Alvin “Youngblood” Hart. The “true blues” tag fits perfectly to Davis, a multi-instrumentalist and preservationist of African American roots and blues and storytelling traditions. The critically acclaimed songwriter devoted this album to his uncle William Conan Davis, who, the artist stated, “despite being a profound stutterer, was one of the best storytellers I’ve ever known. The song Sugarbelly is based on a haunting true story that he used to tell me about a woman who was murdered.” The Legend of Sugarbelly is yet another of Davis’ foot-stomping, sawdust-kicking, down-home joyrides. It’s just gritty and rough-hewn enough to keep up the fun, homegrown, back porch vibe inherent in Davis’ house party style.
This writer first reviewed Davis’ 1995 album, Stomp Down Rider, and has followed his career ever since, as he solidified his deserved reputation as one of the primary acoustic blues performers of our time. Now, 29 years and 13 album releases later, Davis’ raspy blues voice has aged like special, small batch, full-bodied barrel bourbon, with each album more earthy. His cultural forte is as a consummate teller-of-tales, balladeer, and song-and-dance showman, perfectly combining his acting, literary, and musical heritage. With this modus operandi he has held steadfast over nearly three decades after his Red House record label debut. Guy Davis is a two-time, back-to-back Grammy nominee for Best Traditional Blues Album for Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train and Be Ready When I Call You, both on M.C. Records. The Legend of Sugarbelly follows suit, as he again stayed close to home to record in the Hudson Valley of New York, bringing back longtime recording partners Mark Murphy on double bass and cello, and co-producer Professor Louie, a.k.a. Aaron Hurwitz, on Hammond Organ. This time they are joined by mandolinist Christopher James, the pride of Maryland, and a long list of singers.
On The Legend of Sugarbelly Davis delivers 13 swift songs with a full arsenal of instruments, playing six- and 12-string guitars, five- and six-string banjos, harmonica, and percussion. There is not a bad cut on the album, and there is something for every roots and blues lover. Guy Davis’ originals Sugarbelly, Kokomo Alley, and Long Gone Riley Brown shine and Davis does a beautiful arrangement of the traditional song Little David Play On Your Harp, showcasing some serious guitar fingerpicking chops. He gets the 12-string guitar out for his hard-driving Lead Belly arrangement of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Black Snake Moan. He closes the album with another refined fingerpicking guitar ditty, Don’t Know Where I’m Bound.
The jug-band song title Come Gitchu Some says it all. You’re gonna love it.
—Frank Matheis
SIERRA GREEN & THE GIANTS
Here We Are
Big Radio / Righteous Path Records – No #
Recent releases like Emotions by Erica Falls and Back to Us by Alex Harris can be considered “neo-soul” albums that draw upon the sound of classic soul and R&B from the 1960s and 1970s that are wed to contemporary sounds and styles. With her debut album, Here We Are, New Orleans singer Sierra Green takes things in a different direction as she immerses herself in the sounds, styles, and grooves of that era to deliver what might be called “retro-soul.” On a program with eight vintage songs, a contemporary cover, and one original, Green digs in deep and pays homage to some of the greats who shaped this music, while at the same establishing herself as a force to be reckoned with on today’s R&B scene. She and her band benefit from the guiding hands of two producers, David Torkanowsky for the tracks recorded in New Orleans and JD Simo in Nashville.
Here We Are opens with the swaggering, horn-driven funk of Green’s take on Funkadelic’s Can You Get to That. She then serves up covers of tunes by three R&B divas—all marked by passion, power, and assurance—the Memphis soul of Ann Peebles’ Come to Mamma; the slow jam Girls Can’t Do What Guys Do, an early track from Florida’s Betty Wright; and a hometown entry, Break in the Road, the Allen Toussaint–penned funk masterpiece from Betty Harris and the Meters. Green follows this trio of tunes with her own Dreams, evoking Tina Turner with a grinding blues rocker featuring a monster bass line, punchy horn parts, and slashing guitar fills. She takes things right to the heart of the matter with a stripped-down reworking of James Brown’s This Is a Man’s World from a woman’s viewpoint. He Called Me Baby has been a hit for country acts like Harlan Howard, Patsy Cline, and Charlie Rich; it was transformed to an R&B hit by both Ella Washington and Candi Staton. Green soars on the track with a Muscle Shoals/Stax southern soul groove. The singer heads back to her home turf for a slow, sultry take on another Toussaint tune Get Low Down, originally by June “Curly” Moore from Huey Smith and the Clowns, and the sassy cover of the David Shaw’s (of the New Orleans–originated Revivalists) Promised Land. Green wraps things up with the fiery, soul-infused blues of Same Old Blues, a Chicago staple from the likes of Magic Sam, Little Milton, Oliver Sain, Otis Rush, and Big Walter Horton. There’s nothing trendy about Here We Are. Sierra Green takes things back to the source, and she’s effective and fiery from start to finish.
—Robert H. Cataliotti
WILLIE BUCK AND THE DELMARK ALL-STARS
Live at Buddy Guy’s Legends
Delmark Records – Delmark 882
B.B. King came to Willie Buck’s little town, Houston, Mississippi, before Buck was able to get into juke joints, so he sat outside and listened to the King. What he heard that day set him on a blues journey, and he’s performed with everybody, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Pinetop Perkins, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Buddy Guy, among many others. This live album, from Buddy Guy’s Legends, captures Willie Buck at his best, and it features an all-star lineup of musicians playing behind him. The Delmark All-Stars include Scott Dirks on harmonica, Thaddeus Krolicki and Billy Flynn on guitar, Johnny Iguana on piano, Melvin Smith on bass, and the late Willie “The Touch” Hayes on drums.
The album opens with a stirring jump blues instrumental, Jumping, by the All-Stars that gives every musician a chance to stretch out and show their stuff. Rolling blues piano and trilling harmonica lay the groundwork for Buck’s soaring version of the classic Kansas City. Stride blues meets crunchy Memphis soul on Crawford’s original What We Were Talking About, while Buck and the band deliver a slow-burning 12-bar blues on Let’s See if We Can Come Together. Buck and company turn in a down-to-the-bones, harmonica-drenched version of Muddy Waters’ Rock Me. Guitars and harmonica play call-and-response on the slowly unfurling stomping, haunting blues of Walking and Swimming. The album closes with the crowd-pleaser Hoochie Coochie Man, and Buck’s version gets down and gritty as any other version of the classic blues song.
Live at Buddy Guy’s Legends celebrates one of blues’ great singers, Willie Buck, with this all-star band giving him room to let his voice growl and soar.
—Henry L. Carrigan Jr.
DUKE ROBILLARD
Roll with Me
Stony Plain – SPCD1496
Singer-guitarist Duke Robillard has had a long, illustrious, and creatively fruitful career. Co-founder of Roomful of Blues in 1967, he remained with that group for a decade, cutting a pair of albums. Subsequently working with other artists and as a solo artist, he stayed busy through the following decades. In 1990 he took over on guitar from Jimmie Vaughan in the Fabulous Thunderbirds. A prolific recording artist, Robillard has released more than three dozen albums, dazzling listeners with his work in jazz, swing, blues, and sometimes all three at once.
Robillard’s latest is a semi-archival release: Roll with Me is the product of session that took place some 20 years ago; for years he referred to the long-shelved project as The Lost Duke Sessions. Now, in 2024, Robillard has dusted off those tapes, adding bits here and there as necessary to polish them up.
Other than a modern production aesthetic, everything about Roll with Me sounds and feels like classic jump blues and swing from the 1940s and ’50s. Blue Coat Man has a chunky and exuberant horn section. A reading of Fats Domino’s Are You Going My Way sports the requisite New Orleans feel, with yakety sax and rollicking piano. A cover of Joe Turner’s I Know You Love Me mines a similar vein, with an even tastier piano part; the song conjures visions of a horn section swaying to and fro as they churn out a hypnotic melodic line.
The highly charged Boogie Uproar is Robillard’s tribute to Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and a fine one it is. Muddy Waters’ Look What You Done layers a new lead vocal by Robillard’s band vocalist Chris Cote atop the instrumental track; Sugar Ray Norcia lays down a solid harp solo.
Howlin’ Wolf’s Built for Comfort gets a full arrangement, with sinewy guitar licks sparring with beefy horns and a raspy Robillard vocal. My Plea is a Robillard original in a Fats Domino style, its composition dating from Duke’s years with Roomful. The saucy, up-tempo You Got Money is another track finished with a new and spirited Cote lead vocal. Doc Pomus’ oft-covered Boogie Woogie Country Girl is approached with a faithful arrangement.
Another Duke Robillard original, Give Me Back My Money is straight Chicago-style blues, with a languid pace that allows him plenty of space to stretch out and solo. The set closes with a remake of Don’t You Want to Roll with Me. The Robillard composition was Roomful of Blues’ debut single back in 1975, years before the group would release a full album. Robillard’s remake changes the key and pumps up the horn volume; with a lead vocal that subtly recalls Louis Prima, it’s a fine way to wrap up a solid set of songs.
—Bill Kopp
