Road worthy
D.D. Bastos keeps New England blues smooth
by Don Fluckinger
Is there a New England Blues sound? Ask most blues players, and they'll
acknowledge there's a "scene" but no "sound" that defines the region's blues
style.
Yet it could be argued that our best, most popular players -- namely the
fraternity that is Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, Roomful of Blues, the
Broadcasters (all of whom had Ronnie Earl in their line-ups at one point), and
the hundreds of splinter groups who have branched off -- have shaped many other
New England bands. Certainly, when three of them show up on D.D. and the Road
Kings' album, there is a common thread that can be traced back to the '60s
blues revival.
"I believe New England has a certain sound of its own," says singer D.D.
Bastos, who along with guitarist Jeff Terra form the nucleus of the Road Kings,
a Rhode Island ensemble who bring their eclectic mix of blues and R&B to
Slattery's, in Fitchburg, this Saturday. "There is a style of doing certain
songs. What we refer to as a march is really a Texas double-shuffle, but it's
taken on its own persona."
Citing an example from the Road Kings' 1996 debut, Lover Bird, Bastos
continues: "`Take Me' is very Muddy Waters, very Chicago; that's what we were
looking for. But it still had its own little New England touch to it because of
the way people in this neck of the woods have learned to interpret the
music."
New England blues has a smooth, urbane sound. Refined by producers in the
high-tech studios of the East Coast's technology capital, it sounds closer to
rock-and-roll than Chicago blues and farther from country music than Texas
style. It's rocking enough that we dance to it, but bluesy enough that no one
will ever think "Aerosmith."
This all leads to more family-tree stuff; Bastos was in a band called
Roadhouse Blues when she met Terra, at the time a member of the Kingpins. They
decided to start their own band. Needing a name, they truncated the names of
their old band into the Road Kings. That's not to be confused with the Radio
Kings, a totally separate group. Well, mostly separate. Former Road Kings
bassist Dave Clark -- who wrote "Take Me" -- left to join the Radio Kings, who
also decided to perform their own version of "Take Me."
On the Road Kings' debut, ex-Roomful of Blues players Paul Tomasello (bass)
and Greg Piccolo (saxophone) joined Neal Gouvin (drummer who used to be in
Sugar Ray Norcia's Bluetones before Norcia took the lead vocalist job for
Roomful of Blues), Bastos, and Terra in the studio. Also present was Anthony
Geraci, who played keyboards backing B.B. King.
"At one point in time [while recording the CD] it dawned on me that all of
these guys had played together at some point in their lives," Bastos says.
"Being in the studio was a real cool thing. These guys hadn't seen each other
or played together for years. It was like a family reunion -- they were trading
stories. It made for a really warm, comfortable feeling."
D.D. and the Road Kings already have five tunes in the can for the next album,
which Bastos hopes will be done by early next year. She says she'd like to
invite Duke Robillard (ex-Roomful of Blues and a recent guest on a killer Joe
Beard CD with the entire early-to-mid-'90s Broadcasters line-up sans
Ronnie Earl) to play on several tracks. The new CD, she adds, will be more
"contemporary" sounding than the debut, "a little more left of center." More
New England style.
No blues band can claim to be a part of the Northeast crowd until they've
bowed down at the throne of Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson, the ranking Northeast
bluesman who earned his stripes back in Chicago, playing with Muddy Waters and
Magic Sam. D.D. and the Road Kings have that angle covered too; Bastos calls
Rynborn, a tiny club in Antrim, New Hampshire, and Johnson's favorite haunt
"our home away from home." In fact, at a recent show the mercurial Johnson came
on stage and jammed for the last five songs of the Road Kings' set. "When he
sits in and plays, it's a pleasure," Bastos says of Johnson, who's played with
the band several times. "He can do that anytime he wants."
Like most New England blues bands, D.D. and the Road Kings get around. Sure,
our region cannot claim a Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters, or Professor
Longhair from whom all local blues originated. But we have our own history
here, and a sound of our own -- listening to D.D. and the Road Kings and
pondering their history proves it well.
D.D. and the Road Kings play at 9:30 and 11:15 p.m. on August 29 at
Slattery's, in Fitchburg. Call (978) 342-8880.