Bob Makin, Bridgewater Courier News Published 8:00 a.m. ET July 12, 2019
Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac speaks at the groundbreaking of the Hickory Senior Center in the Fords section. Megan Kushpa, Woodbridge Township
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Touring in support of his latest Stony Plain Records LP, “Ear Worms,” multi-Blues Music Award winning guitarist Duke Robillard will return from a European trek to play Parker Press Park in Woodbridge.
For the cover album, Robillard said he dug into the crates of his youth.
“They are not of one particular genre or style, but rather songs I heard in my pre-teens to my later teens, with the exception of a few songs, which I threw into the mix to round out the overall album vibe; sounds that stuck in my head, in many cases before I knew what the blues was,” he said. “I guess you could call them ‘ear worms.’ It can be a song you can’t get out of your head because you love it so much, or it can also be a mundane piece of drivel that haunts you like a bad dream. Hopefully, if these songs become ear worms for you, they will be good ones!”
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Produced by Robillard, former frontman and co-founder of Grammy-nominated Roomful of Blues, and recorded at Lakewest Recording and Duke’s Mood Room, “Ear Worms” also features his long-time band. They are: Bruce Bears, piano, Hammond organ; Brad Hallen, acoustic and electric bass; and Mark Teixeira, drums. Both Bears and Teixeira also sing lead vocal on one track each.
The track listing for “Ear Worms” kicks off with the rollicking Duke-penned original, “Don’t Bother Trying to Steal Her Love,” followed by a dozen songs. They include Julie Grant’s “‘Everyday I Have to Cry Some,” Mother Earth’s “Living with the Animals,” Bob Dylan’s “I Am a Lonesome Hobo,” Brenda Lee’s “Sweet Nothin’s,” Chuck Berry’s “Dear Dad,” Link Wray’s “Rawhide,” The Neville Brothers’ “Yellow Moon,” and Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can.” The repertoire demonstrates the breadth of Robillard’s skill and knowledge of so many styles of music.
“Since I was as young as 10 years old, the sounds on recordings always captured my imagination,” Robillard said. “Why did they fade out at the time they did? How did they get that sound? Why does the reverb come up as the song fades out? Production was a mystical thing to me. Even though I had no idea what producers and engineers did, my ear was tuned in to a recording’s sound and the way the music and sound made me feel.”
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Since starting his musical career in 1967 by founding and fronting Roomful of Blues in his home state of Rhode Island, Robillard has been at the forefront of blues, swing, classic R&B and jump blues for more than 40 years. With 30 solo albums to his credit since 1980, Robillard also has toured as a guitarist with Tom Waits and the Fabulous Thunderbirds and recorded with the likes of Bob Dylan, Ruth Brown, “Pinetop” Perkins, Maria Muldaur and many more.
Opening in Woodbridge will be acclaimed Asbury Park singer-songwriter Frank Lombardi, whose third LP since 2014, “Predawn,” has been compared to great tunesmiths, such as Bob Dylan, Harry Chapin, Gordon Lightfoot and Jackson Browne.
Duke Robillard and Frank Lombardi
When: 7:30 p.m. July 17
Where: Parker Press Park, 400 Rahway Ave., Woodbridge
How much: Free admission; food and drink for sale
Info: woodbridgeartsnj.org/free-concerts.html, dukerobillard.com/
Bob Makin has won 11 New Jersey Press Association Awards and four Best of Gannett Awards. A news veteran of nearly 40 years, Makin covers business and entertainment. Contact him at 732-565-7319 and bmakin@gannett.com.
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