Never Enough

Young Neal learns to love independence

by Don Fluckinger

It's taken several years for Young Neal & the Vipers to re-establish themselves as one of the area's favorite groups; and in that time Neal Vitullo himself has rebounded from the blues -- the major-label blues -- and he's a little older and a lot wiser for it.

The band, run through the ringer of major-label feast and famine that comes after a record deal goes bad, are now back on their feet. The group, now a trio, make the most of six hands and a fiery, fret-picking frontman who also does all the singing nowadays. As they've always done in their incarnations over the years, Young Neal & the Vipers, who appear at Jillian's this Sunday, create a towering electric wall of sound inspired by rockers Roy Buchanan and Jimi Hendrix.

Their suave blues comes from some pretty slick performers as well -- T-Bone Walker, Albert/ Freddie/B.B. King. It's a happening, modern approach, a deliberate sound that Vitullo has crafted to entertain and rock out the club scene. If that means that blues purists won't be standing in the front row with their jaws dropping at his technique, so be it.

"Roots-American music is what I do. . . . Blues purists, or blues nazis as I like to call them, regard blues as a very defined art form, on the lines of classical music -- which [means it] has already been done and you should learn only the way the masters do it," Vitullo says. "What I think is that [the blues masters] really didn't have an idea of what they were doing, either. They were being creative, going for a creative outlet. They came out with some very unique voices."

One thing Vitullo's in common with many great blues masters is that he too got shafted; it was in the early 1990s, and it was in a huge way by a major label.

Surprisingly, it was Atlantic Records -- the home of some of the all-time greatest R&B, jazz, and blues music artists -- that dealt the blow. One of the pioneering labels that regarded blues and soul as great music long before many of its competitors, Atlantic was led by music-biz visionary Ahmet Ertegun, who presided over the careers of greats such as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Professor Longhair. It was Ertegun who signed Vitullo to Atlantic -- sans the Vipers -- and told him to keep on doing the T-Bone Walker-style music.

When Ertegun experienced family problems, Vitullo says, he "dumped" Young Neal Vitullo and his career onto A&R execs who wanted to surround him with studio musicians. For a while, his group included local singer/songwriter Dennis Brennan on lead vocals, replacing Vitullo's longtime friend Dave Howard. It was an awkward time; now Vitullo and Howard perform together occasionally, when the Vipers cross paths with Howard's band, the High Rollers.

But that wasn't the half of it. "They put me with producers that had no clue of what blues is, and A&R guys who were more into metal and pop," Vitullo says. "I was rehearsing for a show with Willie Dixon and they said, `Who's the old black man in the chair?' They sign a bunch of people, and take it like a bunch of spaghetti and throw it against the wall and see what sticks."

Ultimately, Vitullo never made a record with Atlantic, and they parted after a year. Since then, he's gone back to doing things for himself, having settled down with King Snake Records, a Florida-based independent label. Last month, Young Neal & the Vipers released their second King Snake CD, One's Enough. Playing bass with Vitullo in the current line-up is Hub O'Neil, and Billy Donahue's on drums.

The CD has hard-rocking moments that are closer to joyous '60s rock than old-time blues, but one listen to Vitullo's crackling cover of Lowell Fulson's "Tramp" or the country-rockabilly strains of Vitullo original "Guitar Slinger," and you can hear where this guy's coming from. It's definitely not close to anything Randy Bachman ever did; it reaches further back into the days when Eddie Cochran was singing "Summertime Blues" and when B.B. was riding in his first tour bus.

For the holidays, the band are sticking close to home, but after the new year rolls around there's a tour of Europe and the South on tap. Back in the world of the hardworking band, removed from the cusp of blues superstardom, Vitullo looks back with much less vitriol than most people would harbor: "That's the way it is. I had a great experience. I have no regrets. It was fun. . . . of course [now] I'd love to have the budget and the push, but I wouldn't want to go through A&R guys who just don't want you to be you." n

Young Neal & the Vipers play on November 21 at the Worcester Phoenix Fall Music Concert Series Party at Jillian's Billiard's Cafe. Call 793-0900.