ROOMFUL OF BLUES

Hook, Line & Sinker

Alligator ALCD 4941

By Tim Holek

All that Roomful of Blues is concerned with is whether their music sounds good, whether you can dance to it, and whether you can feel it. With suave horns that whirl straight off the big band dancehall floors of the ’30s and ’40s, Hook, Line & Sinker is quite possibly Roomful’s best CD since joining the Alligator family in 2003. The multiple award-winning group’s combination of swing, early rock ‘n’ roll, jump, blues, and soul has earned it just praise since forming in 1967, which pre-dates the creation of Alligator Records, which just turned 40 years old! More than 50 band members have come and gone since the band was started by renowned guitarist Duke Robillard and keyboardist Al Copley. With practically a non-stop performance schedule, America’s favorite little big band has earned critical, popular, and radio success along with a legion of fans around the globe.

     These swinging and swaying 12 songs will put you “in the mood” from start to finish. Sure, they are all cover songs taken from the band’s extensive repertoire, but you’ll have to be a musicologist to recognize them. The obscure songs were originally written and/or recorded by well-known and highly respected artists such as Little Richard, Dave Bartholomew, Amos Milburn, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Floyd Dixon, and others. Like the Beatles song catalogue, you’ll feel an established acquaintance with these songs even though you may not be familiar with them at all. 

     This 40-minute disc features new bass player John Turner and new trumpeter Doug Woolverton, but the most obvious newcomer is singer Phil Pemberton who joined the band a short time before making this recording. His huge voice is a mix between Curtis Salgado, Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris, and Big Joe Turner. A warm and relationship-building voice emerges from the fun loving singer. Pemberton comes across as if he has been the band’s main vocal and focal point for several years. His emotive vocals will have you personally experiencing the discomfort of the main character’s loneliness on “Ain’t Nothin’ Happenin’”. The New Orleans sounding “Come On Home” reveals Pemberton can reverberate as strong and loud as the band’s stomping three-piece horn section. “Time Brings About A Change” is a ballad which allows the flamboyant Pemberton to stretch his multi-octave range and ultra-expressive vocals. 

    “She Walks Right In” features swinging R& B from yesterday that simply makes you feel good. Romping horns rumble and rattle on “That’s A Pretty Good Love”, where Chris Vachon’s enthusiastic guitar riffs are at the center of the song. In fact, Vachon is given more opportunity than in the past to showcase what he can do with six strings, (e.g., “Win With Me, Baby”), while playing along side the ever-present blasting horns. With cheerful horns, slapping bass, and rollicking piano that’s a blitz for ballroom dancers, the exhilarating instrumental “Gate Walks To Board” features the entire band.  

     The CD’s strength, and in fact the eight-member group’s greatest asset, is how well the band performs as a cohesive unit. Throughout, the horns hop, the keyboards sway, the vocals enthuse, the guitar rocks, and the band jumps. Roomful’s signature sound runs rampant on Hook, Line & Sinker which plays like a tribute to the best swinging tunes from the ’40s and ’50s. Every song is good, but when those songs are performed by this venerable band, the combined outcome is a transcendent musical experience that is both nostalgic and avant-garde at the same time.   

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