Giving interviews has been part of Chris Vachon’s job for many years now. Vachon has been the band leader for Roomful Of Blues since he joined the now 40 year old institution in 1996. The guitarist is just as comfortable talking to the press as he is paying out a smoking’ lead guitar phrase on stage.
Roomful got back from the road the day before he spoke. “We had a good time. It was five gigs out in the mid-west,” Vachon said. “We started in Nebraska, and we went to Minnesota and South Dakota, and we finished up in Minnesota, and we came home. It was all good crowds.”
When asked how the Mid-West music scene differed from the East Coast, Vachon gave a frank answer. “I hate to say this, but there was a lot more people that showed up,” he said, chuckling. “We haven’t really been out there in while. We got sell out crowds so we did pretty good. It’s pretty hit or miss around here. You don’t ever know.”
Roomful had to do a lot of driving out in the heartland. Sound man Mike LeBeau, Vachon, Mark Earley(sax), Doug Woolverton(trumpet), and Ephraim Lowell(drums) took turns steering the MCI tour bus. The band has been happy about the numerous positive reviews for their most recent CD release Hook, Like, And Sinker.
“I haven’t seen anything negative yet,” the guitar man said. “It’s been pretty good, all pretty positive, so we’re all real happy about it. People are picking it up here and there. It’s selling pretty decent.”
Although Roomful didn’t record any original material for Hook, Line, And Sinker, they selected their covers very carefully, and they put their own personal stamp on each track. They also got to show off their new multi-octave crooner Philip Pemberton who had been in Boston and Providence music circle for years.
“We got Phil, and really didn’t have a lot of time to write stuff, and I wanted to get him on a record,” Vachon said. “I figured the best thing to do would be a tribute thing to a lot of the great writers and the great artists that we admire. I had a party at my house with the guys. I said, ‘Everybody bring in ten songs.’ So, we had 80songs. We sat through it all. We listened to it all. Over the next couple of weeks we whittled it down back and fourth through e-mail, and we finally settled on 12 of them. We rehearsed a couple times and we went into the studio and cut it live.”
The 12 tracks Roomful settled on stood out for their momentum. “We were trying to pick stuff that kind of flowed, and stuff that we thought were great songs that were written well,” Vachon said. “I personally wanted to get a couple of Gatemouth’s. I always loved him and he passed away not so long ago. I was thinking about him. I was thinking about people we really like a lot that we hadn’t recorded much of yet.”
Word of mouth has been positive about Hook, Line, And Sinker. Like on previous Roomful releases, the band expanded their sound into different styles but sill managed to hold onto their enthusiastic fan base. “Usually, I’ll ask everybody to bring in what they’ve written and we’ll fill it around that. This time we went for the covers. I think it’s just our background and the stuff we like. It stays sort of consistent. We do like to mix things up. We don’t want to do a whole album’s worth of swing. We like to mix it up so it moves along.”
New member Philip Pemberton has a multi-octave singing voice and he is well steeped in roots music. “He obviously has a great voice. He has a big range,” Vachon said. “That’s the most important thing with us because he can cover anything that we do. We don’t have to change keys for him or anything. He’s got that much of a range so that he’s able to cover just about anything we want to do, all the older stuff that we used to do and in all the original keys and stuff. He’s a real strong singer, and we’re real happy and lucky to have him.”
When asked if a continuously changing line-up helps, hurts, or doesn’t impact the band, Vachon answered philosophically. “It happens,” he said. “This many years guys don’t want to stay forever. They have other things they want to do or they don’t want to be on the road any more. We’ve been really lucky. We know a lot of guys to call on if we lose somebody. We’ve never really done any kind of auditions or any of that stuff. Between all of us, we’ll know somebody to try. Those people have the same background that we have, and so it doesn’t change all that much.”
When ask how he would described or define Roomful’s distinct sound, he pointed to the horns. “We’re probably unique in that we carry three horns and most people don’t any more. They’ll record and put horns on it but they won’t travel with it. I think we’re one of the few bands that are still doing that. That obviously gives us a lot more variety in the stuff that we can pick. We can cover Kansas City style, the Chicago style, Jump and Swing, New Orleans. The territory type of music, we’re able to do that kind of stuff. I think that’s what makes us a little different than most of the bands.”
Roomful doesn’t play a lot of what Vachon calls “the weepy blues stuff” but rather focuses on the kind of upbeat blues that people can dance to. This positive blues might account for Roomful’s immense popularity. “I think that people come to see us they usually come to dance,” the guitarist said. “We play in place where people sit down too, but they always end up saying, ‘Gee, I wish we could dance.’ I think people just want to participate in it.”
Roomful’s horn section, no matter who is in it, is rooted in the blues that grew out of the swing of the 1930s and 1940s. “(Saxophonist) Rich (Lataille) has been in the band for 43 years now. He’s been there long enough now where everybody that we get, he knows how he wants it to sound. The guys will get their parts together, and Rich is a big part of that. He’ll work on the parts.”
Vachon has produced the last six Roomful CDs and he doesn’t find it a chore to get all those musicians on the same page. “I don’t really have to do much at all,” he said. “As long as we rehearse a couple times and make sure everybody knows what they’re doing. We don’t really have a problem that way. We get in there, and we’re excited to do it. I think the energy comes out that way. We have guys that know what they’re doing. So, it’s not a big task for me.”
Hook, Line, And Sinker was recorded in less than two days, and Vachon mixed it in his home studio. “We cut it live,” Vachon continued. “We don’t go in and change everything or overdub stuff. Everything pretty much goes down live. We might fix something here or there if we made a mistake. We usually cut the song two times and pick the best one.”
Vachon said people have commented that he plays his guitar more on the new CD, but he didn’t notice that himself. “I’m used to playing to with a lot of guys and a lot of soloists. I’m not the kind of guy that wants to take over the show. I put what I think fits in there with everybody else. If anything, I try to not feature myself so much. This is the sixth or seventh record I’ve produced with the band so I’m used to the whole thing.”
Vachon said Roomful is trying to line up some festival appearances for this summer. “We’re just keep working,” he said. “That’s what we do. We’ve done it for so long now that I don’t want it to stop. We won’t go away.”
Bill
Great article, I ‘ve followed Roomful for years and they always put their best foot forward. So many talented players have come thru that band that you can’t even really say there was a bad album. I had the chance to play with a bunch of the boys over the years a few times I’ve always a blast. Most notably in Kingston a few years back. A joy to play with and listening to them there always seems to be such a great energy that surrounds them. We’re looking forward to seeing them up here in the great white north soon.
Rocket “Jed” Rached
Been a Roomful fan for very many years Miss Bob but the band goes like no other Covered Roomful for STLBlues.net in St Louis and can verify they are the hardest working blues band around and will go literally out of their way for a good gig Would love to see them in Iowa this summer Nice job on the :Hook” album guys Thanks