Living Blues (6/03, p.81) - "...Roomful of Blues manage to deliver hard-hitting jump blues with the same flair that marked their debut - 17 albums later..."
Roomful Of Blues includes: Mark DuFresne (vocals, harmonica); Chris Vachon (guitar); Rich Lataille (alto & tenor saxophones); Bob Enos (trumpet); Mark Stevens (keyboards); Jason Corbiere (drums).
Recorded at Osceola Studios, Raleigh, North Carolina. Includes liner notes by Bob Bell.
THAT'S RIGHT was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
Seventeen albums into a career that dates back to 1967, Rhode Island's most famous musical export makes its Alligator Records debut with 14 songs that show this longstanding outfit has far from worn out its welcome. THAT'S RIGHT! finds the band fronted by new singer/harpist Mark DuFresne, who immediately dives right into the title cut, a slam-bang reading of a Chris Powell-penned R&B nugget, pumped up by the band's collective shouted harmonies and swinging sax solos of Mark Earley and Rich Lataille. From here it's off to the races with a set of music that'll whet the appetite of swing fans looking to cut a serious rug. Among the many delights, a bouncy romp through Big Joe Turner's "Lipstick, Powder and Paint" defies any urges to bop in place, while T-Bone Walker's "I Know Your Wig Is Gone" is delivered as a sly strut, and a version of Smiley Lewis's "Shame, Shame, Shame" wails in all the right places. Equally impressive is the instrumental take on Arthur Prysock's "2 Point 8" that really allows the band to rock and roll as they confidently chug along.