Album review: ROOMFUL OF BLUES – Steppin Out!

October 11th, 2025 by petefeenstra

Pete Feenstra chatted to Chris Vachon from Roomful Of Blues for Get Ready to ROCK! radio. First broadcast 19 October 2025.

Alligator Records [Release date 24.10.25]

‘Steppin’ Out!’ is Roomful of Blues’ first studio album for 5 years and their 28^th release in all, incuding live and compilation albums.

It’s essentially a re-calibration of their core values, as they musically take us out on a metaphoric night on the town, led by new singer vocalist D.D.Bastos.

Over 50 band members have passed through the ranks since they started in 1967 and vocalist Bastos breaks new ground by being the first female vocalist to record with them, though she ‘s not the first woman to front band as she was preceded by Lou Ann Barton who sang live, but did not record.

Co-founded by the guitarist Duke Robillard and pianist Al Copley, Roomful Of blues quickly shifted from being a guitar driven Chicago blues band to becoming a musically expanding umbrella, incorporating all colours of the blues from their boogie, swing and rock and roll antecedents to r&b and soul in a horn-driven jump band.

Much like the similar efforts of the late Otis Grand in the UK, they established a durability based on being unique big band blues practitioners.

The duo left in the midst of time, but the band’s integrity lives on, as they bring their trademark big band horn sound to bear on 14 well chosen covers.

The album opens with the rumba inflected and Afro-Latino rhythms of ‘Satisfied’, on which Bastos’s initial introduction as new vocalist is short, as guitarist Chris Vachon solos early,

The attention to rhythmic detail lies at the heart of an album full of challenging arrangements which bring out the best in both vocalist and band members alike.

Listen for example, to their version of Big Maybelle’s ‘I’ve Got A Feelin’, which is arguably the perfect song for the band.

Covered back 20 years ago by Candye Kane, here it’s transformed into a whirl of compelling rhythms and horns, while still leaving plenty of room for D.D.’s expressive phrasing.

She shines on the staccato arrangement of ‘Please Don’t Leave Me’ and the soft brush strokes and trumpet inflected ‘Tend To Your Business,’ while the stop-time horn heavy ‘Good Rockin’ Daddy’ – always a good barometer of a band’s swing credentials – finds her attacking the song with gusto, surrounded by uncredited bv’s.

The refreshing thing about this album is the way the band showcases the musical genres that inspired the original members.

‘Steppin’ Up In Class’ for example, features a greasy swampy foundation for some declaratory phrasing, alongside Chris Vachon’s sinewy guitar solo and Rich Lataille gritty sax.

They crank things up again on ‘Well Oh Well’ with some intuitive band interplay, sparkling solos and another confident vocal, the very elements that also gives the lead promo track ‘You Were Wrong’ such a significant impact.

There’s also smart choice of a Buddy Johnson’s ‘Why Don’t Cha Stop It’, taken as a languid shuffle on a less-is-more outing.

However, not everything hits the spot, as ‘Slippin And Slidin’ doesn’t have the same impact despite some gutsy solos, mainly because it gathers momentum too late into the fade, while Smiley Lewis’s ‘Dirty People’ doesn’t fit Bastos’s exuberant vocal style, but it does feature some lyrical piano and stinging guitar breaks.

No matter, the aptly titled ‘Boogie’s The Thing’ closes out a fine album with a flurry of trademark energy, bounce, and swing, drawing us into the kind of music that founder member Al Copley viewed as a catalyst to a “participatory universe.”

Suffice it to say, this album is successfully shot through with the same ideal. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

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