Roomful of Blues wows Manchester, NH

Manchester, NH was the scene of a blues riot Saturday night (June 16th) as Roomful of Blues took the stage! The Dancers were sweating the band was really jumpin' and the whole town was curious about the goings on. There were lots of people outside the fence listening. Maybe next year they will support The Palace Theaters' efforts to bring high class music to jaded Manchester inhabitants. This Jazz and Blues Festival has been happening for a few years and this was the best by far! Last year they had a couple of awful rock bands that were so bad they might have made people stay away this year. But they really missed it if they did! Roomful is a sterling 10 piece big blues band with real flair. Singer Mark Defresne have verve and personality and he engages the crowd with ease. He also sings in 3 octaves with ease!!! He handles songs from Junior Parker with the same care as songs from band members, Travis Colby and Chris Vachon. He is thoughtful and soulful and hands the audience music they can swing like crazy to, and songs that make them think about love lost, love found and love of blues.

Chris Vachon, lead guitarist plays both great back-up chords and fills also gets singled out with t four piece version of the band to show off his outstanding guitar talent. He can play you a nice T-Bone Walker shuffle and then tear into a hard driving modern power solo. There is no shortage of talent in this band!

Travis Colby has written a song MADE for this band, it is a huge musical romp with a great rolling piano part (Travis is the keyboard player, naturally) called Jona Lee, and Mark shows off his incredible range and singing ability on that tune. Nothing but the best for Travis!

Rick Lataille (36 year veteran and original member of the band) Bob Enos and Mark Earley blast out incredible horn parts that make the Betty "Bee Bop" Bishop wiggle and shake and the men say so "Oh Yeah!"

One can't help but feel the music when Roomful plays. They always give me goose bumps.

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Mr. Nick's Blues Mafia also played the next night and really put on a great show. Nick is a big man with a big voice who has an affinity for old microphones and dapper dress. His band is very tight and deeply funky and a little scary. I like that! He can really tear into aa great blues song, writes some of his own and really singings the heck out of covers. He plays harmonica with the same intensity as he sings which makes for some pretty sacrey harp as well. Very funky, very bluesy, singularly Nick!

Kudos to The Palace Theater for putting on this wonderful two day music festival and for including this great American music performed by our great local New England bands. I hope to see more of them in the future performances.