Duke Robillard is one of the most prolific recording artists of his generation. I, for one, am very glad that he applies his immense talents primarily in the blues field. It is where he does his best work…and here in 2020 we need his best work. Blues Bash! is just that. It is the strongest Duke Robillard album in recent memory. Since he makes records at a furious pace, releasing at least one new album a year for a very long time, that is really saying something. As a long-time certified “Duke-Head” I know of which I speak.

Blues Bash! is on the Stony Plain Records’ label and is scheduled for a November 20^th release date.

Eight of the ten songs here are vocal tracks. Robillard sings on four of these and exhibits some of the best singing of his career. As has become the case with a greater degree of frequency over the past few years, Duke shares the mic with guest vocalists. Chris Cote does an outstanding job singing on three tunes. Michelle Willson offers up a sassy reading of Helen Humes’ You Played on My Piano.

Duke is joined by longtime bandmates drummer Mark Teixeira and Bruce Bears on piano as well as Hammond organ. Handling bass duties are Marty Ballou and Jesse Williams. The three original sax men from Duke’s Roomful of Blues days make very welcome contributions. They are Doug James on baritone, Greg Piccolo on tenor and Rich Lataille on alto. Roomful of Blues is a musical institution which goes back more than 50 years at this point. They added a distinctive horn driven sound to the blues that had laid dormant for some time. It is back on Blues Bash!

The horn section is bolstered by “Sax” Gordon Beadle on tenor and Al Basile on coronet on the Dave Bartholomew classic Ain’t Gonna Do It, made famous by Smiley Lewis. Mark Braun plays piano on this number. No Time, written and sung by Robillard, features Mark Hummel on acoustic harmonica and Robert Welsh on piano.

Robillard has journeyed with much success into many avenues of 20^th century American music and can speak fluently in many sub-dialects of the language of rhythm & blues including jump blues, swing and straight-head jazz. On Blues Bash! Duke moves seamlessly between several blues destinations in the country. These stops on the trail feature music with distinct regional accents.

At the end of the day this album sounds like two people shooting pool while slipping nickels into a jukebox, trading one great rhythm & blues tune after another. At some point they feel compelled to put their pool cues down long enough to bust into dance. New Robillard tunes and a couple of reworked songs from his vast canon of work, sit comfortably beside songs written by Ike Turner, Roy Milton, Dave Bartholomew and others.

When our two pool shooting dancers want to catch their breath they retire to a booth in a dark corner of this cozy tavern and settle in to listen to the final track on Blues Bash! As they sip a glass of their favorite whiskey, they are treated to a classic Robillard late night, cocktail blues instrumental. Evoking the late 50’s, early 60’s guitar and Hammond B3 organ sounds by Bill Jennings and Jack McDuff often on the recordings by Willis “Gator Tail” Jackson, Just Chillin’, a Robillard original, is a ten-minute tour deforce.

In many ways Blues Bash! is a product of our environment. It was recorded in haste last March 12^th and 13^th just as the pandemic was starting to assert its cruel spell on the world. Robillard had the songs ready and the musicians in place to knock it out, just like blues records used to be made.

I don’t think it would be unfair to suggest that this urgency adds a naturalistic feel to Blues Bash! This album is void of pretense. Even Duke’s guitar, while front and center, never attracts undo attention. While demonstrating his great scholarship of this music by evoking sonic images of Ike Turner, Johnny Heartsman, Bill Jennings (as previously mentioned) and others, Duke adds his own personal, subtle embellishments to each song.

As Robillard stated in the album’s liner notes, “My goal was to make a real blues album like the ones that made me want to play the blues in the first place.” He succeeded.  I’d like to thank Duke Robillard for reminding us that this timeless art we call the blues can be so damn fun.

- David Mac

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