Review - Under One Roof

You can count on Roomful of Blues to give you great-tasting jump blues every time. Though individual players have come and gone in three decades of constant touring, the quality has remained consistent. From guitarist Duke Robillard, who founded the band with Rhode Island friends in 1967, to vocalist Lou Ann Barton, who left Stevie Ray Vaughan's Triple Threat Revue in 1979, Roomful of Blues has earned the rep as the "best little band" in the business.

Offering their own blues encyclopedia, "Under One Roof" shelters every kind of blues under the sun. There's the jump-blues opener "She'll Be So Fine," featuring the fat harp of singer Suger Ray Norcia, the Texas blues instrumental "We B 3," showing off chief songwriter Chris Vachon's blistering guitar chops, "Smack Dab in the Middle of Prison," and "Let Me Live," a Chicago blues stomp with more tasty horn fills than a German bakery. It's the real thing, baby!