There are not many bands who have gone on for well over 50 years. For some, in their later years, they become a kind of nostalgia act for the often short-lived style with which they were associated. In a way they become a kind of musical museum piece. This week, we have a new recording by a band that formed 58 years ago, whose style was retro from the when they started. So the music that they have served up authentically over the decades is classic and timeless. It’s Roomful of Blues, and their new album is called Steppin’ Out.

Roomful of Blues started when some teenagers in Rhode Island including guitarist Duke Robillard, got together to play in the style of mostly pre-rock rhythm-and-blues, inspired by the African American jump bands of the 1940s. Their trademark is their horn section and swinging grooves.

While there are no original members in the current lineup, their lead sax player Rich , Lataille, has been with the group since 1970, before their memorable 1977 debut album. The guitarist Chris Vachon, the current bandleader has been with Roomful since 1990. Steppin’ Out is the group’s 20^th album. As often happens, the other personnel has been somewhat fluid, with a a succession of different lead vocalists. For the first time on record, the band has a female lead singer, D.D. Bastos, who, interestingly, has a background in choral singing. She works as choral director in the New Bedford, Massachusetts, public schools. But she’s an all-out blues singer, and has her own blues band D.D. and the Road Kings. She fits right in with the driving sound of Roomful, and can hint at the sound of the so-called blues shouters from the early rhythm and blues days.

While the band’s 2020 album, In a Roomful of Blues featured a fair number of original compositions, the new album Steppin’ Out features all cover material, with most from classic blues and early rock songwriters, like Buddy Johnson, Albert Collins, Big Mama Thornton and Little Richard.

Opening the 14-song album is a strong rocker called Satisfied which highlights the band’s trademark big sound. <<>>

No less energetic but with a kind of boogaloo beat is a tune called You Were Wrong by the late veteran soul singer Z. Z. Hill. <<>>

Also with a classic sound is a song by another pair of seminal composers, Don Robey and Jimmy McCracklin, Steppin Up in Class, whose lyrics were the inspiration for the album title. It’s a great early rock style tune with clever wordplay. <<>>

Roomful serves up a Little Richard tune Slippin’ and Slidin’ and puts their own spin on the song with their big horn section. Vocalist D.D. Batsos, does a great job with it. <<>> While this track times in an under three minutes, there are short solos by one of the saxophonists, piano and guitar. <<>>

Likewise with a great classic sound is Please Don’t Leave Me, done as a rhythm & blues ballad with the Roomful horn section doing its thing. <<>>

In keeping with the archetypal jump band sound is Good Rockin’ Daddy with its infectious shuffle beat. <<>>

One of the highlights of the album is another old song Well Oh Well with its all-out swing rhythm. <<>>

The album ends with its best track, Boogie’s The Thing which is well described by its title. The band cooks in this style of tune on which Roomful of Blues has always excelled. <<>>

Steppin’ Out, the new 20^th album by the more than half century old Roomful of Blues, is a treat. The band sticks to its tried-and-true formula of danceable, energetic, horn-dominated pre-rock rhythm and blues and straight out blues, and still makes it sound fresh. New vocalist D.D. Batsos along with some other recently added players, provide some new blood in their eight-piece lineup, but they stay true to the band’s classic and trademark sound, which still sounds great all these decades on.

Our grade for audio quality is an A-minus for a good mix, but the sound is more volume compressed than it needs to be, with with band already having an inherently big sound.

When a bunch of teenagers decided to start a group on based on old blues bands, little would one know that 58 years later, the they would still be around, essentially doing the same thing, and managing never to go out of style.