News you can use

Roomful & Porky, the DCN, the ISE, and more

by Bob Gulla

Roomful of Blues

I put the review carousel on hold for a week or two while I catch up on some newsy items of more imminent interest. Here goes.

PORKY & ROOMFUL REUNION. We're sure glad to hear at PHX that the legendary Roomful of Blues took our retiring their jersey in the Local Music Award rafters with a goodly amount of humor. They are, after all, a blues institution in this state and a good part of the country, too, and will forever be appreciated, even if they aren't on some lousy ballot. A Lifetime Achievement Award is surely in order and perhaps as the award process approaches next year we'll see to it that it happens.

Anyway, there's news of a reunion on the Roomful docket this week. Longtime trombonist Porky Cohen will rejoin the band at the Call in Providence this Friday night in what amounts to a must-see R&B fest for blues etc. fans. Porky was Roomful's trombone player from 1979 until 1987, when he decided the band's unrelenting touring schedule was becoming too much and reluctantly quit. Since that time, Porky has played around Rhode Island with groups led by the late Tony Tomasso, John Worsley, and others. Porky recorded an album with Roomful in the mid-'90s entitled Rhythm and Bones still available on the Bullseye Blues label. Although Porky has been making records since the '40s, this was, remarkably, the first session under his own name.

In fact, check out this resume: Porky worked with the Jewels of Dixie for three decades, and in the '40s and early '50s worked and toured with such unbelievable bands and bandleaders as Charlie Barnet, Lucky Millinder, and Artie Shaw. The number of legendary names he has played with over the years is staggering, ranging from Louis Armstrong to Charlie Parker, and he is the only musician to have played with both W.C. Handy and Stevie Ray Vaughan. How's that for a career?

Porky Cohen

The Call is at 15 Elbow Street in Providence (751-2255) and doors are at 8 p.m.; Roomful and Porky will take the stage around 11. Roomful will also be playing at the Boston Music Awards this Thursday at the Orpheum. The band has been nominated for Best Blues Act. The Boston people obviously haven't considered the Lifetime Achievement concept for Roomful as we in Providence have. There will be more on Roomful in this column when the band's new album Watch You When You Go hits stores on the 12th of June.

DIGITAL CLUB NETWORK. The Digital Club Network or DCN.com, the world's largest aggregator of live music performances, have formed a partnership with McGathy Promotions, the nation's leading radio promotion company. Together, the two organizations have announced a plan to deliver live concert broadcasts to commercial radio stations around the country. Digital Club Network (DCN) currently Webcasts and archives more than 100 live concerts each week from more than 50 popular night clubs around the country. DCN digitally records over 100 live performances each week by new and established artists, from its exclusive worldwide network of A-list clubs. DCN delivers its shows to consumers both live and on-demand, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, using streaming media technology. DCN also syndicates shows through other media outlets, distributes CDs of live performances, and offers unique online and offline sponsorship packages through its Website and physical venue network.

Under the new partnership, McGathy Promotions will arrange for syndication of these live concert Webcasts to their affiliate stations, enabling the stations to present a greater array of live music and reach a much broader audience.

In a press release, Ted Werth, co-founder and chief strategic officer of DCN, notes: "Because radio stations have finite amounts of air time, they are increasingly using their websites to offer their audience depth of content they can't get on the air. Syndicating our live concert webcasts allows radio stations to add a compelling, live music component to their Websites which, due to the breadth of our offering, can be tailored to each station's listening demographic." Webcasts will be offered for syndication to 100 major commercial radio websites. What this sounds like to us is a good opportunity for local independent rock bands to jockey for "commercial" radio airplay without hiring a pimping radio promoter. On the same hand, it also gives adventurous program directors (are there any out there?), a chance to bring their audiences closer to their music by webcasting music that would never make regular rotation. Dig it.

ISE PRELIMS. RattleHead Records is happy to announce the successful completion of the first round of the Institute for Sonic Evolution. After one of the craziest high school battle of the bands folks in these parts have ever seen, two winners emerged! The competing bands were Pray for Nothing, Wedgie, Ullision, Off Center, and Roman (featuring DA). The winner was a split decision between Wedgie and Ullision, and both will be going to the finals with one occupying a wildcard slot.

WANDERING EYE. First and perhaps most enigmatically tragic in Wandering Eye is the postponement of John Fuzek and company's annual Hear In Rhode Island Music Festival, originally scheduled for June 9 and 10. No explanation was given for the cancellation in John's cryptic note, but he did mention that "the festival will restructure and return in 2002." It could be that the intense uphill climb a production like that requires in terms of lining up acts, lining up vendors, and most impossibly, lining up sponsors and advertisers -- the lifeblood of a production of this nature -- finally prompted the well-meaning Fuzek to wave the white flag. Let's hope it is indeed a temporary surrender. For any comments, encouragement, or other verbal assistance please e-mail John at hearinri@ids.net.

Bob Sloane, the live sound engineer at the Call and the Century Lounge, writes in to inform us that his hot new 24-track mobile/remote recording studio in Seekonk is open for business. "We teamed up with the legendary Phil Greene over the last year and a half and created a recording studio that will give any major recording studio in New England a run for their money," says Sloane. The studio just finished cutting its first recording, for a new band called Drawn Butter from Martha's Vineyard, which features members Stu Kimbel (Carly Simon, Bob Dylan), Mike Levesque (David Bowie), and Judd Fuller (Entrain). If you're interested in checking it out, go to www.studioliverecording.com, or call (508) 761-9421.

There are some good shows coming up this weekend. Immune gets a sweet slot tonight (Thursday, the 19th) opening for very hot Maverick label band Tantric, which features ex-members of Travis Meek's former band Days of the New. Tickets are a very cheap $6; Immune should be on around 9.

Blueblood is commemorating the release of their new Only Time Will Tell twice. On Friday (the 20th), they'll celebrate at the Newport Blues Café on Thames Street. On Saturday, they'll make the short trip over the bridge to Jamestown to play the Narragansett Café.

The Providence Riots, and their decree "No Taxation Without Amplification!," hit the Safari Lounge on Saturday, intending, of course, to uphold your inalienable right to rock.

Lastly, Green Music Network officials announced a free Earth Day Concert on Sunday, April 22 at the Aspray Boathouse in Warwick from noon until 4 p.m. (The Aspray Boathouse is off Narragansett Parkway at the Pawtuxet River on the Warwick side of the Warwick/Cranston line on the Narragansett Bay, next to the park where Gaspee Days events are held.) Local solo musicians and bands will perform for the non-profit GMN in a mostly acoustic or unplugged setting, with booths for various environmental groups on hand. The bill features bands Bridges Fell, E, and Hawkins Rise, along with solo artists Kelly Walsh, Eric Fontana, and Ed McGuirl. And the family-friendly event will feature a children's play area and a youth drum circle at 3:30 p.m. to close the concert. Donations will be accepted and refreshments will be sold to help cover the cost. For more information, call 490-7602.

Bob Gulla can be reached at b_gulla@yahoo.com.