Duke Robillard

An American multi-instrumentalist specializing in guitar, vocals, songwriting, bandleading, and session work, Duke Robillard produces a warm vintage tone and precise technique that draws from blues, jump R&B, swing, and roots rock. One of the originators of Roomful of Blues, he issued his debut solo album Duke Robillard & the Pleasure Kings in 1984. Between 1989 and 1993 he succeeded Jimmie Vaughan in the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Three albums appeared on Virgin's Point Blank during the mid-1990s, among them 1997's Dangerous Place. Stony Plain released Conversations in Swing Guitar, a 1999 collaboration with jazz guitarist Herb Ellis. 2004's Blue Mood: The Songs of T-Bone Walker received worldwide recognition. After A World Full of Blues in 2007 he revisited jazz on A Swinging Session with Duke Robillard. The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard earned a Blues Music Award in 2015. Duke Robillard and His Dames of Rhythm arrived in 2017 as a set of collaborations with female vocalists. The self-produced They Called It Rhythm and Blues appeared in 2022 accompanied by an all-star roster of musicians and singers. Stony Plain issued Roll with Me in 2024, his final recording for the label.

Born Michael John Robillard in Rhode Island in 1948, his first musical touchstones were early rock figures including Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Duane Eddy, encountered via his guitar-playing older brother's record collection. When Robillard requested an instrument he informed his father that one was required for a school assignment, leading the pair to construct a rudimentary guitar modeled on country rockabilly player James Burton's Fender Telecaster. The British Invasion redirected his attention toward its source material, prompting study of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, and Robert Johnson. At age seventeen he resolved to assemble his own group. In 1967 he and pianist Al Copley established Roomful of Blues in Westerly, Rhode Island. For the following decade the band enjoyed regional success yet failed to achieve national breakthrough despite two well-received Rounder albums, 1978's Roomful of Blues and 1979's Let's Have a Party. Following repeated personnel shifts Robillard departed in 1979 to pursue an independent path. He briefly served as rockabilly singer Robert Gordon's lead guitarist before joining the Legendary Blues Band. In 1981 he formed the Duke Robillard Band, which soon became Duke Robillard & the Pleasure Kings; after several years of touring the group secured a Rounder contract and delivered its self-titled debut in 1983. Throughout the remainder of the decade the band toured extensively and issued further Rounder releases, among them 1988's You Got Me recorded with Dr. John and organist Ron Levy. From time to time Robillard also released jazz-focused solo projects such as the well-regarded Swing.

In 1989 he assumed Jimmie Vaughan's position in the Austin, Texas-based Fabulous Thunderbirds while continuing independent recordings and sideman engagements. Solo releases from this period include 1991's Turn It Around and 1992's After Hours Swing Session, and he accompanied Johnny Adams, Snooky Pryor, and Pinetop Perkins. His Fabulous Thunderbirds tenure coincided with the MTV years and produced two charting albums, Walk That Walk, Talk That Talk in 1991 and Wrap It Up in 1993.

Robillard signed a solo agreement with Virgin's Point Blank for 1994's Temptation. Duke's Blues followed two years later, reaching number six and remaining ten weeks on the Blues Albums chart. Early in 1997 he contributed to Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind, then released Dangerous Place, his final Point Blank album. A non-exclusive arrangement with Canada's Stony Plain yielded Stretchin' Out in 1998. The next year he delivered New Blues for Modern Man, the first of two Shanachie albums, and rejoined Roomful of Blues for Swingin' and Jumpin'.

Conversations in Swing Guitar with jazz legend Herb Ellis appeared on Stony Plain later in 1999; Explorer, his concluding Shanachie release, followed in 2000. These projects secured the first of Robillard's four consecutive W.C. Handy Awards as Best Blues Guitarist. After La Palette Bleu on France's Dixie Frog in 2001 he returned to Stony Plain for the acclaimed 2002 album Living with the Blues and has remained with the label since. In 2003 he and Ellis reunited for More Conversations in Swing Guitar. The R&B-infused jump and swing of Exalted Lover came later that year and featured a guest duet with Pam Tillis on "I'll Never Be Free." 2004's Blue Mood: The Songs of T-Bone Walker garnered multiple W.C. Handy Awards, while New Guitar Summit united Robillard with guitarists J. Geils and Gerry Beaudoin. The following year The Duke Meets The Earl, a collaboration with guitarist and former Roomful of Blues member Ronnie Earl, was issued. Robillard resumed solo recording with 2006's Guitar Groove-A-Rama, which received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album.

He continued exploring jazz and jump blues on the number-seven-charting A World Full of Blues in 2007 and A Swingin Session with Duke Robillard for Dixie Frog in 2008. Returning to early R&B influences, 2009's Stomp! The Blues Tonight also peaked at number seven on the Blues Albums chart and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album. That year he also recorded Tales from the Tiki Lounge with singer Sunny Crownover, a Les Paul and Mary Ford tribute incorporating lounge and exotica excursions alongside blues and vintage pop material. His next Stony Plain album, Passport to the Blues, revisited gritty Chicago-style house rent blues. In 2011 he released the 1940s and 1950s blues covers collection Low Down and Tore Up, followed by Independently Blue in 2013. In April 2013 Robillard joined Bob Dylan's touring band during Charlie Sexton's temporary absence, performing twenty-seven shows before resuming solo engagements.

In 2015 he celebrated roots American music from the 1920s through the 1940s with The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard, a set of unreleased standards and collaborations that received the Blues Music Award for Best Acoustic Blues Album. September 2016 brought the charting Blues Full Circle, featuring guest appearances by Jimmie Vaughan, Sugar Ray Norcia, and Kelley Hunt. The following year Duke Robillard & His Dames of Rhythm appeared, a collection of 1920s and 1930s swing and jump tunes with vocalists Madeleine Peyroux, Maria Muldaur, Sunny Crownover, Elizabeth McGovern, Catherine Russell, and Hunt. Robillard revisited music of his youth on 2019's Ear Worms, offering raw interpretations of rock, blues, R&B, and swing songs that had captivated him as a youngster. November 2020 saw Blues Bash with Duke Robillard & Friends, a raucous straight-ahead blues album with two horn sections—one reuniting him with Roomful of Blues members—showcasing vocalists Chris Cote and Michelle Willson plus boogie-woogie pianist Mark "Mr. B" Braun. 2022's They Called It Rhythm and Blues included Cote and Willson along with an all-star roster of Sue Foley, John Hammond, Mike Flanigin, and Kim Wilson.

In 2005 Robillard and his studio band received approval from new label Stony Plain to record a blues album. They assembled and wrote material, demoed the songs, then set the project aside in favor of other musical directions. Twenty years later the collection was finally completed and released as Roll with Me, his concluding Stony Plain album in 2024.