Still standing Roomful of Blues celebrate a new disc — and survival BY BOB GULLA

If you think for a moment that Roomful of Blues has seen better days, well, think again. Sure, the band, currently in its fourth decade together, has ebbed and flowed over the years. Surging and receding in popularity and relevance depends not only on the band’s own mechanisms but on the tenor of the blues worldwide. But, like the blues itself, Roomful is nothing if not resilient and, with its new album, Standing Room Only, is heading toward greener pastures. Last year, they won the prestigious W.C. Handy Award for Band of the Year, an extraordinary achievement for an outfit with such a gray beard and a testament to their rejuvenated passion. "I feel great about the new record," says guitarist and bandleader Chris Vachon. "And the lineup we have now is the best we’ve had in a long time. It feels like everybody’s really stickin’ with it for the right reasons."

When you’re dealing with eight guys — eight different temperaments — sticking together and sticking with it isn’t a given. In fact, before the band’s last record, Roomful went through a pretty significant shake-up, requiring the replacement of five of the eight band positions. "Everyone that’s been in the band has done a great job, but occasionally guys come into the lineup more for the gig and not the total picture."

But these days the octet’s on the same page and contributing more to the final product than any Roomful lineup in recent memory. Five different members contributed songs to Standing Room Only, which means that their heads and their hearts are fully in the right place.

"Six months before we made the record," says Vachon, "I asked everyone to write, and a lot of the guys responded. I felt lucky that the stuff that got brought in was as good as it was. We didn’t throw anything out. The last disc came together so quickly that we didn’t have time to write much new stuff. With all the new guys coming in, we needed to get a record out and so we went with a bunch of covers. This time we had more time to get original stuff from the band." Those originals, with some typically well-chosen chestnuts by Jimmy Nolen, Little Milton and Lowell Fulsom, help Standing Room Only rate as one of the band’s best efforts.

Which leaves us wondering how Roomful will take advantage of the all-for-one, one-for-all viewpoint they now enjoy. It’s good and all to have a united front, but now they need to put it into action. "As far as what’s next, we gotta get gigs," says Vachon. "We need to keep this going." So far, the band has a half-dozen festivals booked for the summer and need to fill in dates around those gigs — which isn’t an easy task, and for a blues band like Roomful, it’s getting harder every year to make it a reality.

"It gets tough with the economy the way it is," Vachon notes. "And quite a few venues have dropped out as well. It used to be that we could work five or six nights a week and not sit around weeknights in a hotel room. But that’s getting harder to do. It’s a struggle."

That struggle is an ongoing one the band faces every time it sets its mind to something: a tour, a record, a lineup change. "Yeah, it feels like the buzzards are circling over us sometimes," Vachon laughs. "But they’re not gonna get us any time soon."

Roomful of Blues will celebrate the release of its new CD at the Odeum in East Greenwich on Saturday, January 22. Go to www.greenwichodeum.org for details.

REISSUES OF THE YEAR. The Providence scene is old enough to have a handful of crucial reissues, all of which should be in every local music fan’s collection.

The Schemers: Remember

Twentysomething years ago, the Schemers were earmarked for greatness, not just by the local folks who embraceed them, but by tastemakers around the country. "There was a time when we were playing once a week in Providence and tons of people would show up week after week to hear us play the same songs," says songwriter/frontman Mark Cutler. "It was an exciting time for us, it really was, like Hamburg, Germany during the Beatles’ early days."

Fans and parvenus alike can take a stroll down memory lane with Remember, the best reissue in 2004 by a "local" band. "It’s been 25 years since we started, and we never properly documented any music on a CD," says Cutler, about the idea for the new disc. "We just wanted to have something to show for our time together." Back then the Schemers lived for the moment. Young and impetuous, talented and charming, the band never struggled for audiences, never labored for their art. It all came naturally, and people dug it, night after night. "It was all very much in the moment," says Cutler. "What were we thinking? We were thinking about having a great time."

Verbal Assault: The Masses / Learn (Mend It)

They were hardcore when the word "hardcore" had only one interpretation and no hyphenated hybrids. In fact, Verbal Assault was one of the bands in the early ’80s that helped define the term. The Newport crew — Chris Jones (bass/vocals), Nick Barbato (drums), and Pete Chramiec (guitar) — played their first show in 1983, opening for punk legends the Circle Jerks, and called it quits some eight years later. They gigged with some of the best bands of the era, and eventually served as one of them, getting lumped in with an elite group of hardcorers like Murphy’s Law, Seven Seconds, the Dicks, and Gang Green. Good company, if you can remember back that far. Clearly, with the rise of hardcore in the underground in the late ’80s and the utter resurgence of it as hardcore metal as we speak, Verbal Assault had its big toe in the waters before the temperature was right. Says Chris Jones on the band’s website (www.verbalassault.com), "I think what Verbal Assault was about — heavy, melodic hardcore that in some ways was ahead of its time, lyrics that tried to be thoughtful without sloganeering, and a politically progressive stance that avoided being dogmatic still has relevance today."

Neutral Nation

Since this record was released, I swear I get a couple of requests every week from people wondering how to get a copy of it. And they come from all over place, not just from Rhode Island, all from people who remember the band fondly enough to write to a complete stranger about getting their clutches on music. Along with Verbal Assault and a few other hardcore bands, Neutral Nation — Mike Yarworth, Dave Chabot, Tom Buckland, and Mike Neckritz — dominated the local punk and post-punk scenes back in the ’80s. They routinely knocked folks flat with their sincerity, passion, and throttling delivery. Maybe you’ve seen them at one of their recent reunion shows. Maybe you missed them entirely. All you have to know is that some 20 years later, people are still asking about Neutral Nation.

Wandering Eye. Rebecca Nurse hits the Century Lounge on Friday (the 21st), with the Brother Kite and Without Andy. The show starts at 10 p.m., it’s 18-plus, and the cover is only $4. Also on Friday, Dave Howard and the High Rollers make their inaugural appearance at Chan’s in Woonsocket to support their newish release Sure Bet. Buy one at the show if you already don’t have it. The High Rollers feature vocalist/ harpist Dave Howard, guitarist Tom Ferraro, bassist John Packer, pianist Glenn Hardy, and drummer Bob Christina. They also just announced the hiring of keyboardist Glen Hardy to fill the sound out that much further.

Of the Hour plays at AS220 on Saturday (the 22nd) with a really good lineup of bands, including Providence’s Zillionare, the Electric Bastards from Boston, and Seymour Glass from Staten Island.

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