Duke Robillard on working with Bob Dylan, forming Roomful of Blues — and forging his own path
0
Like Me

  Likes
0
Views

  Views
0

Shares

Duke Robillard on working with Bob Dylan, forming Roomful of Blues — and forging his own path

Entertainment

Just nominated for three 2025 Blues Music Awards, Robillard plays Fall River Saturday.

Duke Robillard plays Fall River Saturday.

One day in 1997, Duke Robillard got a phone call.

Bob Dylan, on a classic Dylan-whim, wanted the blues guitarist to record with him on an album in Miami. Now.

“I was told by Dylan’s management that he decided he wanted me down there. They wanted me that day. I said, ‘I’m sorry— I’ll come tomorrow?’ So I left the following morning,” Robillard, 76, tells me in a phone interview from his Pawtucket, Rhode Island home.

The album was Dylan’s watershed “Time Out of Mind.”

As a Dylan disciple, I can’t think of a greater Dylan album to be tapped for in that era. Gritty, bluesy, filled with eerie old-man-melancholy, it was Dylan’s first album of originals in seven years, marking both a popular comeback and distinct new Dylan era: the lonely dandy. All hat, cane, and heartache. It also won three Grammys in 1998.

Advertisement:

Dylan, Robillard tells me, had first heard him play years ago in the Rhode Island-based blues band, Roomful of Blues, and apparently, liked what he heard.

“I walked in the studio, and one of the first things he asked was how I produced one of my jazz albums: ‘After Hours Swing Session.’ He asked if the horns were overdubbed or if it was all live. I was shocked,” Robillard tells me with a laugh. “I’m thinking: Bob Dylan sits home on his couch and listens to Duke Robillard records?”

Someone hearing Robillard play and then immediately hiring him is a running theme.

Advertisement:

On how he ended up touring with Tom Waits in ‘06: “He was looking for a blues guitarist. The agency recommended me, he listened to some of my music, and he said, ‘Yeah, that’s great. I’ll use him.’”

On joining his first band: “Well, this drummer found me. He heard me playing in my bedroom as he was walking by my house on the way to see his girlfriend. I must’ve been a freshman in high school. He knocked on the door, and asked my mother ‘Who’s playing guitar?’ She got me. And I joined his band: The Wildcats.”

On how he ended up playing at the 1964 World’s Fair “A band from Woonsocket called up and asked if I’d play bass with them at the World’s Fair. I talked my father into it.”

From John Hammond to Pinetop Perkins, a slew of greats have tapped the ‘66 Westerly High School alum and two-time Grammy nominee for sessions or tours over the years.

Born Michael John Robillard in Woonsocket in 1948, he founded Roomful Of Blues with pianist Al Copley in Westerly in 1967. (Dylan was also apparently a fan of that band.) The Rhode Island-based band is still at it.

Advertisement:

Robillard left Roomful in ’79, toured with Muddy Water band alumni, replaced Jimmie Vaughan in The Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1990, and is a session man and producer to dozens. 

In 2013, Robillard made headlines for joining Bob Dylan’s tour — and three months later, made more headlines for abruptly leaving. In 2014, he was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame

He’s picked up a mantle’s-worth of various blues awards over the course of 37 albums. His latest is a classic roll-your-head-back-and-feel-the-blues “Roll With Me (2024.)

On Friday, he learned he’s up for three 2025 Blues Music Awards, to be awarded May 9: BB King Entertainer of the Year, Traditional Blues Album of The Year (“Roll With Me”) and Traditional Male Artist of the Year. 

I called Robillard, who lives in Pawtucket with his wife Laurene, as he readies for a Saturday show at Fall River’s Narrows Center. We talked local roots, being his own boss, loving music since time out of mind — and the Dylan story so strange you’ll have to wait for his book. 

I have to ask: Have you seen “A Complete Unknown?”

Advertisement:

I have. I liked it. Not everything was exact — or even close — to the way things really went, but you’re trying to cram years into a two-hour film. It was entertaining. 

You first recorded with Dylan on “Time Out of Mind.” Daniel Lanois, who produced that album, was supposed to be the guitarist on those sessions, you’ve said.

Yeah, in fact, it was really weird, because he didn’t want me there taking his place. So after every song was recorded, he’d go out and play and tell me to go sit in the control room. Then Dylan would argue with him, and he’d come back in the control room and tell me to go out there. It literally happened for every song.

Oh my god.

Yeah, he just didn’t get the message. And it was a very strong message [laughs.] It was pretty weird. But it didn’t deter the way I felt about doing the session, because Dylan was very obvious that he wanted me there.  

Was that phone call totally random?

I’d been asked to audition for his band several times before that. For 15, 20 years, they’d tried to get me involved with the band. But when they called about recording, I said, “Of course.” I didn’t want to leave my own career, my own band. But recording with him was something I really wanted to do.

You didn’t want to be in his band?

Advertisement:

Well, I’ve been the leader of my own band for forever. When I was in Roomful of Blues, I was the leader. That’s what I’ve done all my life. Recording is a different thing — I love to record with people — but I prefer to be my own leader.

Finally, around 2013, I gave in. It was like the fourth time they asked. Work was a little slow at that period, around Christmastime, so I did it. We did a month-long tour and took a break, and then started out again. I was only in the band for about a week after that, and he started acting really strange. I just decided I was too old to deal with it. He’s got a reputation for being different and difficult when he wants to be. I just said, “I’m sorry, but I’m going home.” [laughs]

[laughs] What was he doing?

All I can say is: It’ll be in my book. I’m writing a book, and that’ll be one chapter.

But just to give a tease: What do you mean by “strange?”

It’s a long story, very complex. I did something he didn’t like and he shouldn’t have got upset about. I just can’t explain it. You’re gonna have to wait, I’m sorry [laughs]. It’s too weird and long a story.

[laughs] OK. So going back to your roots. You grew up mostly in Harrisville, a village in Burrillville, Rhode Island. As a little kid, you weren’t allowed to play guitar.

Advertisement:

It was the very beginning of rock and roll. I was interested in it by 6 or 7 years old — really interested. That’s all I wanted to do; it’s all I talked about. So naturally, my mother thought it was the devil’s music. I wasn’t allowed to do it — which made me want to do it even more.

[laughs] You built your first guitar for a science fair. 

I built it with my father in 8th grade. We had an old acoustic guitar. I convinced my father it was my project to build an electric guitar. That way, when it was finished, hopefully I could actually use it. 

So there was a guitar in the house. Your brothers?

It was my uncle’s. Both my brothers played.

You weren’t allowed because you were the youngest? 

That, and they had just a mild interest in music — I was obsessed. That was a bad sign, or at least my mother thought so. 

You were obsessed so young. Do you remember when you first fell in love with music?

The first memory I have is hearing big-band music on the radio when I was on the kitchen floor in diapers. I remember it taking over my attention.

That’s incredible. 

I have a theory that I probably was a musician in a former life, because it just was so natural for me. It was just so overwhelming since I was born. 

What was the feeling you got when you played guitar?

Advertisement:

Expression. I was a very shy kid, so my only real form of expression was playing the guitar and singing.

Did you want to play blues right away? 

Early rock and roll is just blues with a different beat, but I didn’t really know what the blues was until I heard flip-sides of Chuck Berry records. That captivated me, even as a little kid. When I heard “Wee Wee Hours” by Chuck Berry, it put a spell on me. 

You had bands throughout high school, graduated Westerly High in ’66, and started Roomful with Al Copley in 1967. How did that come together?

I’d started playing with some friends. Then I met Al Copley, who was quite a few years younger, a great piano player, kind of a child prodigy. We started playing together, forming the first version of Roomful. It kept growing and changing as I became an avid record collector, learning more. I was like a sponge. 

How’d you get the nickname “Duke”?

When I was a teenager, I had long really curly hair. One day I cut my hair short and combed it back. They said I looked so different that I needed a new name. Some of the guys in my band started calling me Duke, and it stuck.

[laughs] Roomful became huge in New England. You played all over Boston, Somerville, Cambridge. Why did you leave in ’79?

Oh, as things go, we had some disagreements between some members. I had an offer to join Robert Gordon’s band in New York. Then he took some time off. I was getting paid a retainer, but I didn’t like not playing. So I started my own band.

Advertisement:

Then I did a tour with The Legendary Blues Band, all [former] Muddy Waters band members. They wanted me to stay with them, but I was too keen on being my own boss.

Then I was asked to join the Fabulous Thunderbirds as Jimmie Vaughan’s replacement. Jimmie and I were good friends. Two of the Thunderbirds had been in Roomful of Blues: Fran Christina, the drummer, and Preston Hubbard, the bass player. By the time I joined, there were three Rhode Islanders in a Texas band. [laughs]

[laughs] That’s awesome. You were in the Thunderbirds until around ’92 or ’93.

Then they had to cut pay. And I needed to just have my own band. 

Any other Boston connections?

I used to work with Jay Geils (of J. Geils Band) and another Boston guitarist Gerry Beaudoin — we had a three guitar jazz unit with bass and drums, [New Guitar Summit] I think we made three albums.

You’ve got 37 albums of your own.

I’m starting my 38th. But I’ve been a sideman on many albums of other people’s.

What are a few that stand out?

“Time Out of Mind,” for sure.

Did you sense the magic of that album when you got there?

As soon as we started playing. They put a guitar on me the minute I walked in the room. It was great. He was ecstatic about my playing right away, which made Daniel Lanois really mad [laughs].

Advertisement:

[laughs] One of my favorite Dylan songs was cut from that album: “Red River Shore.” Are you on the Vol. 8 Bootleg version? 

Probably. We recorded it two different ways. You never know when you work with Dylan — sometimes they don’t even tell you the tape is rolling.    

Interview has been edited and condensed. Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here. Read more stories on Facebook here.

Source

About admin

Leave a Reply

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

WP Radio
WP Radio
OFFLINE LIVE