Duke Robillard
Encyclopedia
Michael John "Duke" Robillard (born October 4, 1948, Woonsocket
, Rhode Island
) is an American
blues
musician.
After playing in various bands and working for the Guild Guitar Company
, he co-founded the band Roomful of Blues
with pianist Al Copley
in 1967. He has also been a member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds
which included Kim Wilson
, replacing Jimmie Vaughan
on guitar. Also experienced in jazz
, swing, and rock and roll
, aside from his preferred blues music, Robillard has been generally regarded as a guitar player keeping the blues style of T-Bone Walker
.
He has recorded with artists such as Jimmy Witherspoon
, Snooky Prior, Jay McShann
, Hal Singer
, Pinetop Perkins
, Joe Louis Walker
, Todd Sharpville
, Tom Waits
and Bob Dylan
. In the summer of 2006, Robillard accompanied Tom Waits
on a tour of the Southern United States
.
and Jimmy Witherspoon
.
Robillard was hired by Tom Waits, who was looking for a blues guitarist and a master of American roots music for his Orphans Tour. Although Robillard did not record with Waits, the 2006 dates were widely bootlegged. Robillard's latest album Tales from the Tiki Lounge, was a tribute to Les Paul
, and he played an array of Gold Tops and other Les Paul models, plus an Epiphone Broadway.
Robillard has also been nominated for:
Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Woonsocket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 41,186 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. Woonsocket lies directly south of the Massachusetts border....
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musician.
After playing in various bands and working for the Guild Guitar Company
Guild Guitar Company
The Guild Guitar Company is a USA-based guitar manufacturer founded in 1952 by Alfred Dronge, a guitarist and music-store owner, and George Mann, a former executive with the Epiphone Guitar Company...
, he co-founded the band Roomful of Blues
Roomful of Blues
Roomful Of Blues is an American blues and swing revival big band based in Rhode Island. With a recording career that spans over 40 years, they have toured worldwide and recorded many albums. Roomful of Blues, according to The Chicago Sun-Times, “Swagger, sway and swing with energy and precision...
with pianist Al Copley
Al Copley
Al Copley is a blues pianist who co-founded the American jump blues band Roomful of Blues with guitarist Duke Robillard in Westerly, Rhode Island in 1967. In 1974 Count Basie called Roomful "the hottest blues band I've ever heard". In 1975 Roomful signed a recording contract with Island Records,...
in 1967. He has also been a member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds are an American, Grammy-nominated Blues rock band, formed in 1974.-Career:After performing for several years in the Austin, Texas blues scene, the band won a recording contract with Takoma/Chrysalis Records, and later on signed with Epic Records.Their first two albums,...
which included Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman for The Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s; "Tuff Enuff", and "Wrap It Up."-Career:...
, replacing Jimmie Vaughan
Jimmie Vaughan
James Lawrence "Jimmie" Vaughan is an American blues rock guitarist and singer from Dallas, Texas, United States. He is the older brother of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan....
on guitar. Also experienced in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, swing, and rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, aside from his preferred blues music, Robillard has been generally regarded as a guitar player keeping the blues style of T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...
.
He has recorded with artists such as Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
, Snooky Prior, Jay McShann
Jay McShann
Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
, Hal Singer
Hal Singer
Harold Joseph "Hal" Singer is an American R&B and jazz bandleader and saxophonist.-Biography:Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Singer studied violin as a child but, as a teenager, switched to clarinet and then tenor saxophone, which became his instrument of choice...
, Pinetop Perkins
Pinetop Perkins
Joseph William Perkins , known by the stage name Pinetop Perkins, was an American blues musician, specializing in piano music...
, Joe Louis Walker
Joe Louis Walker
Joe Louis Walker, also known as JLW is an American musician, best known as a electric blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. A feature of his work is his recourse to older material or playing styles, which revealed his knowledge of blues history.-Career:Joe Louis Walker was born in San...
, Todd Sharpville
Todd Sharpville
Todd Sharpville is the younger son of the 3rd Viscount St Davids and younger brother of 4th Viscount St Davids. Sharpville is a British musician, singer-songwriter and lead guitarist, mainly in the blues field...
, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
. In the summer of 2006, Robillard accompanied Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
on a tour of the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
.
Session work
Robillard has contributed to a large number of musicians' recordings in his career. Some of the most famous have been mentioned, but others include artists as diverse as Wham!WHAM!
Wham! were a short-lived British musical duo formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s. They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band....
and Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
.
Robillard was hired by Tom Waits, who was looking for a blues guitarist and a master of American roots music for his Orphans Tour. Although Robillard did not record with Waits, the 2006 dates were widely bootlegged. Robillard's latest album Tales from the Tiki Lounge, was a tribute to Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
, and he played an array of Gold Tops and other Les Paul models, plus an Epiphone Broadway.
Awards
He has been nominated for and has received numerous awards over his career. Awards include:- 2007 Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts
- 2001 "Best Blues Guitarist" W.C. Handy AwardDuke Robillard Interview 2007, by Brian D. Holland
- 2000 "Best Blues Guitarist" W.C. Handy Award
Robillard has also been nominated for:
- 2007 "Best Contemporary Blues Album" for "Guitar Groove-A-Rama" Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
- 2010 "Best Traditional Blues Album" for "Stomp! The Blues Tonight" Grammy Award
Discography
- Roomful of Blues - Roomful of Blues (1978)
- Let's Have a Party - Roomful of Blues (1979)
- Duke Robillard & The Pleasure Kings (1984) (Rounder RecordsRounder RecordsRounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...
) - Too Hot to Handle (1985) (Rounder)
- Swing (1987) (Rounder)
- You Got Me (1988) (Rounder)
- Soul Searchin - Ronnie EarlRonnie EarlRonnie Earl is an American blues guitarist and music instructor.-Career:Earl collected blues, jazz, rock and soul records while growing up. He studied American History at C.W...
and the Broadcasters (1988) (Black Top RecordsBlack Top RecordsBlack Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...
) - Soul Deep - Miki Honeycutt (1989) (Rounder)
- Rockin' Blues (1988) (Rounder)
- Royal Blue - Al Copley and Hal SingerHal SingerHarold Joseph "Hal" Singer is an American R&B and jazz bandleader and saxophonist.-Biography:Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Singer studied violin as a child but, as a teenager, switched to clarinet and then tenor saxophone, which became his instrument of choice...
(1990) (Modern Blues) - Heavy Juice - Greg Piccolo (1990) (Black Top RecordsBlack Top RecordsBlack Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...
) - Turn it Around (1991) (Rounder)
- Too Cool to Move - with Snooky Pryor (1991) (Antones Records)
- Poison Kisses - with Jerry PortnoyJerry PortnoyJerry Portnoy is an American harmonica blues musician, who has toured with Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton.-Biography:Portnoy grew up in Chicago's Maxwell Street neighborhood where his family owned a store...
(1991) (Modern Blues) - Texas Bluesman - with Zuzu BollinZuzu BollinZuzu Bollin was an American Texas blues guitarist and singer from Frisco, Texas. Originally named A.D...
(1991) (Antones Records) - After Hours Swing Session (1992) (Rounder)
- Pinetop's Boogie Woogie - with Pinetop PerkinsPinetop PerkinsJoseph William Perkins , known by the stage name Pinetop Perkins, was an American blues musician, specializing in piano music...
(1992) (Antones Records) - Good Understanding - with Al Copley and the Fabulous Thunderbirds (1993) (Suffering Egos Records)
- Toolin' Around - with Arlen RothArlen RothArlen Roth is an American guitarist. His first solo album won the Montreaux Critics' Award for Best Instrumental Album of the Year in 1978. He was Guitar Player magazine's top columnist from 1982 to 1992...
(1993) (Blue Plate Records) - Minor Swing - Gerry Beaudoin and David GrismanDavid GrismanDavid Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...
(1994) (North Star Records) - Temptation (1994) (Point Blank RecordsPoint Blank RecordsPoint Blank Records is a record label subsidiary of Virgin Records.Point Blank Records was founded in 1998 by John Wooler. Wooler served as Deputy Head of A&R at Virgin Records UK from 1984-1994 and Senior Vice President of Virgin Records US from 1994-2002. He had a passion for blues, Americana...
) - Spoon's Blues - Jimmy WitherspoonJimmy WitherspoonJimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
(1995) (Stony Plain RecordsStony Plain RecordsStony Plain Records is a major Canadian independent record label, which specializes in roots music genres such as country, folk and blues. The label was the recipient of a 2003 Western Canadian Music Award for "Independent Record Label/Distributor of the Year"....
) - Get Down with the Blues - Tony Z (1995) (Tone Cool Records)
- Married to the Blues - with Mark Hummel (1995) (Flying Fish RecordsFlying Fish RecordsFlying Fish Records was a Chicago-based eclectic blues and country record label. It was founded in 1974 by Bruce Kaplan, former president of the University of Chicago's Folklore Society....
) - Duke's Blues (1996) (Virgin Records)
- Found True Love - with John HammondJohn P. HammondJohn Paul Hammond is an American blues singer and guitarist. The son of record producer John H. Hammond, he is sometimes referred to as "John Hammond, Jr.".-Background:...
(1996) (Point Blank RecordsPoint Blank RecordsPoint Blank Records is a record label subsidiary of Virgin Records.Point Blank Records was founded in 1998 by John Wooler. Wooler served as Deputy Head of A&R at Virgin Records UK from 1984-1994 and Senior Vice President of Virgin Records US from 1994-2002. He had a passion for blues, Americana...
) - Dangerous Place (1997) (Point Blank RecordsPoint Blank RecordsPoint Blank Records is a record label subsidiary of Virgin Records.Point Blank Records was founded in 1998 by John Wooler. Wooler served as Deputy Head of A&R at Virgin Records UK from 1984-1994 and Senior Vice President of Virgin Records US from 1994-2002. He had a passion for blues, Americana...
) - Hootie's Jumpin' Blues - with Jay McShannJay McShannJay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
(1997) (Stony Plain Records) - Time out of MindTime out of MindTime Out of Mind is the 30th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 30, 1997 on Columbia Records. It is his first double studio album since 1970's Self Portrait...
- with Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
(1997) (Columbia RecordsColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
) - Duke Robillard Plays Jazz (1997) (Rounder)
- Duke Robillard Plays Blues (1997) (Rounder)
- Stretchin' Out Live (1998) (Stony Plain Records)
- New Blues for Modern Man (1999) (Shanachie)
- Jimmy Witherspoon with The Duke Robillard Band Jimmy Witherspoon (1999) (Stony Plain Records)
- Explorer (2000) (Shanachie)
- Living with the Blues (2000) (Stony Plain Records)
- Still Jumpin' The Blues - Jay McShann (2000) (Stony Plain Records)
- Blow Mr. Low - with Doug James (2001) (Stony Plain Records)
- Retrospective - New Guitar Summit (2001) (Francesca Records)
- Living With The Blues (2002) (Dixiefrog Records)
- More Conversations in Swing Guitar (2002) (Stony Plain Records)
- Exalted Lover (2003) (Stony Plain Records)
- Blue MoodBlue MoodBlue Mood is a tribute album to T-Bone Walker by Duke Robillard.- Track listing :# "Lonesome Woman Blues" – 4:08# "T-Bone Shuffle" – 5:07...
(2003) (Stony Plain Records) - New Guitar Summit (2004) - Jay Geils, Duke Robillard, Gerry Beaudoin (Stony Plain Records)
- The Duke Meets The Earl - with Ronnie EarlRonnie EarlRonnie Earl is an American blues guitarist and music instructor.-Career:Earl collected blues, jazz, rock and soul records while growing up. He studied American History at C.W...
(2005) (Stony Plain Records) - Guitar Groove-A-Rama (2006) (Stony Plain Records)
- World of Blues (2007) (Stony Plain Records)
- Duke's Box (2009) (Dixie Frog Records)
- Sunny and Her Joy Boys with Duke Robillard (2009) (Stony Plain Records)
- Stomp! The Blues Tonight (2009) (Stony Plain Records)
- Porchlight with Todd SharpvilleTodd SharpvilleTodd Sharpville is the younger son of the 3rd Viscount St Davids and younger brother of 4th Viscount St Davids. Sharpville is a British musician, singer-songwriter and lead guitarist, mainly in the blues field...
(2010) (MiG Music) - Passport to the Blues (2010) (Stony Plain Records)
- Low Down And Tore Up (2011) (Stony Plain Records)