Review: Duke Robillard ‘Roll With Me’
By Nick Cristiano
On one hand, it’s hard to fathom how Duke Robillard could let an album as incendiary as Roll With Me sit in the can for almost two decades. On the other, considering how prolific the guitarist and producer is, it’s understandable.
As Robillard explains in the press release accompanying the album, he and his band recorded most of Roll With Me in 2005. Before it was finished, he came up with a concept for another project, and then another, and another. Making those records, plus his work with other artists, kept Roll With Me in the vaults. It wasn’t until he needed an album to fulfill his contract with the Stony Plain label that he decided to complete Roll With Me and release it. As usual, he made the right call.
Robillard has been at this for nearly six decades, going back to his co-founding of Roomful of Blues in the late ‘60s. If he has made a bad record, we haven’t heard it. His work is always marked by impeccable taste, superb singing and ensemble playing, and an ability to breathe fresh life into classic forms of blues and R&B with a mixture of sophistication and sweat.
That said, Robillard seems to have outdone himself with Roll With Me, a 12-track collection of originals and vintage gems. The band, with such familiar accompanists as Mark Teixeira on drums, Marty Ballou on bass, and Doug James on saxes, is even hotter than usual; the singing more impassioned; and Duke’s guitar more biting and expressive.
They explode out of the blocks with a burst an Olympic sprinter would envy, tearing into the careening jump-blues of Eddie Boyd’s “Blue Coat Man.” “The house was rockin’ and we was havin’ fun,” Robillard sings with relish over the pounding piano and blaring horns. Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown’s “Boogie Uproar” is just that, a wild instrumental that seems on the verge of veering out of control while offering solo showcases for guitar, piano, and sax. The pedal stays floored for takes on Joe Turner’s “Boogie Woogie Country Girl” and Gatemouth Brown’s “You Got Money,” with Chris Cote belting the vocals on the latter.
Robillard’s own “Just Kiss Me” slows the tempo, but the horns still pack a punch, and Robillard delivers a tough-edged guitar solo that is longer than usual for someone whose playing is always in the service of the songs.
Three numbers serve up some New Orleans-flavored R&B: Fats Domino’s “Are You Going My Way,” Joe Turner’s “I Know You Love Me,” and the Robillard ballad “My Plea.” The latter two feature some of Robillard’s most emotive singing and underscore that, while he is heralded for his guitar work, he is also an underrated vocalist.
Leaning into more straight-up blues, Duke and company inject new juice into Muddy Waters’ “Look What You Done,” with Cote on vocals and Sugar Ray Norcia on harmonica, and Willie Dixon’s Howling Wolf vehicle “Built for Comfort.”
There is also Robillard’s “Give Me Back My Money,” a slow-building, six-minute-plus ballad with an elegantly menacing vibe and a guitar solo as cutting as the lyrics.
It ends where it all began, with a jump-blues, Robillard’s own “Do You Want to Roll With Me.” Horns and boogie piano ride a relentlessly driving rhythm section as Robillard sings, “I wanna jump and shout and have myself a ball,” echoing the revelry of the album-opening “Blue Coat Man.” And then he offers an observation that is undeniable after hearing this set: “When this band is hot, you can feel it in your feet.”
Pre-order the album here
“Built For Comfort”
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