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August 28 - September 4, 1998

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Road worthy

D.D. Bastos keeps New England blues smooth

by Don Fluckinger

DD 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.


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