From the heart Dave Howard’s Sure Bet; help for the Station Fund BY BOB GULLA

For the first time in who knows how long, local R&B icon Dave Howard is not succumbing to the pressure of being a blues rocker. On his new CD, aptly titled Sure Bet, the songwriter and lead singer of the High Rollers has loosened up on the idiom he’s been a slave to for as long as he can remember. "I’m following my heart," says Howard. "We redid some old songs, the way they should have been done in the first place, and we really tried to do the things I really wanted to do."

For Howard, that means a little southern-style hard rock, a ballad, and some rockabilly, all of which sounds perfectly natural when sung by the gruff frontman known for his belting. Of course, there’s plenty of what you’d expect from the band on the disc, which also stars Bob Christina on drums, Tom Ferraro on guitar, and John Packer on bass. "There are some general barroom covers," says Howard, "like what you’d hear from us any night, but it’s not as typical as it used to be."

Howard’s influences have always been wide-ranging. It’s just that he’s never really allowed them to surface quite the way he’s done here. "I’ve always had to compete with rock bands for as long as I’ve been around," he says, "so I’ve tried to hammer everyone over the head with my stuff. But I’ve always been a folk freak too, and I love all those Texas songwriters — Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock."

Howard has a soft spot for those Texans not only because they write great stuff, but because they respect the art of songwriting, often teaming up to feed off and inspire each other. That’s a concept you just don’t come by around here. There aren’t enough songwriters in the area eager to partner up. "I had one guy who I could do that with," says Howard, "but he’s no longer with us. That was DJ Stone, and he started finding some success down in Nashville." (The Rhode Island songwriter, aka Dan Selwyn, died a few months back.) "He and I really understood what the other was doing. When he told me he liked a song of mine, I believed him." Howard liked Stone’s stuff too, enough to cover his tune "Yolanda" on Sure Bet, which features some killer riffing from Ferraro. The disc, produced at Danger by Joe Moody and Ferraro, also includes guest appearances by Gordon Beadle, Mark Taber, Becky Chace, Lisa Annunziata, and Thom Enright.

Howard will be working this record hard, doing a few mini-tours when he can get them booked. This Friday (the 20th), you’ll be able to catch his act at the Catfish Grill on WestShore Road in Warwick, the best new place to experience the blues in the entire state. "It’ll be a big night," adds Howard. "My mother’s even gonna come. That’s how big this is!"

Go to www.davehowardandthe highrollers.net for further details.

ROCKERS TO THE RESCUE. Inspired by a comment from his 11-year-old son about the tragic fire at the Station — "Dad, if that fire had been in Billings, [Montana], you would have been there, right?" — musician Greg Smith and a group of friends decided to take action. He formed a group called Northwest Rockers to the Rescue. "I did some research into the situation and was shocked to learn how little help the victims of the fire were getting," said Greg. "For the most part, the mainstream rock and roll community has turned its back on the victims." When Smith found out that Great White had devoted their future to helping the Station Family Fund, he and his group decided to aid their efforts. The Northwest Rockers to the Rescue are raising money for the Fund through a raffle, the auctioning of autographed music memorabilia, and T-shirt sales. A local business donated a guitar, which has been customized and autographed by Great White in preparation for the raffle. Todd King, vice president of the Station Family Fund and a survivor of the tragedy says, "I am astounded that a group of selfless people like the Northwest Rockers who are based so far away . . . has answered our plea for help and organized this event. Isn’t this the true spirit of community that music is supposed to bring out?" Yeah, we think so, too.

To read more about the Northwest Rockers, visit www.northwestrockers.com.

RI NOISE FEST 2004. All three nights this weekend at AS220 will be dedicated to Rhode Island Noise Fest 2004, which seems kinda funny, considering it’s pretty noisy there most of the time. But . . . this time, it’s for real, with three shows of diverse electronic tuneage. On Friday, doors open at 8 p.m. for the Force Of Nature/A Dark & Tranquil Place presentation featuring C Datakill, C2, Synth-Etik, Censor, and Edgy. On Saturday (the 21st), the aural barrage starts at 3 p.m. with a whole battery of electronic adventurers, including Iszoloscope, Displacer, Larvae, Pneumatic Detach, Scrapedx, Totakeke, Prospero, Tiltingtones, Velapene Screen, Grenadier, Re-Agent, and Wounded Infidel. Sunday (the 22nd) also kicks off in the afternoon with the [law-rah] Collective, Terretron, Immaculate:Grotesque, Manufactura, Terrorfakt, Horchata, Red Reflection, Idyll, Pine Tree State, Mind Control, As All Die, Life Towards Twilight, and Perfection Plastic. Phew!

Tickets are $10 per day or $25 for all three shows when purchased in advance. Oh, by the way, it’s BYOO (bring your own oscilloscopes). If you wanna have even more fun, dust off your old Can records for an auditory refresher course. Call 831-9327.

WANDERING EYE. It’s been awhile since we’ve reported any news on Immune, so it was with some pleasure that I received an update from the boys, who have just moved out to Los Angeles to rub elbows with the greasers on the Strip. "Nothing but great news so far," writes Rob, in post card like fashion. "We’ve played a few great shows already, including one at the world-famous Viper Room, Johnny Depp’s club." They have some other gigs lined up and seem to be enjoying the reception. Good luck, boy-os, and don’t forget the sunscreen.

The Goners and Los Filthys hit the Living Room next Wednesday (the 25th) at 8 p.m. Admission is $5. Also on Wednesday at AS220, Ryan Fitzsimmons will celebrate the release of his debut disc, Open All Night. The rising acoustic star has been entertaining audiences pretty convincingly over the last year or so and really getting out there, sharing the stage with the likes of Peter Mulvey, Vance Gilbert, Jeff Lang, and Brooks Williams. Admission to the show, also featuring J.J. Baron, is only $6, which should leave you enough leftover to buy Ryan’s disc.

E-mail me with your music news: big.daddy1@cox.net.