Roomful of Blues have never had any problem living up to their name. Their brassy bombast has packed rooms full of sweaty big band celebrants from coast to coast and round the world for nearly six decades. But for their latest, Steppin' Out, the band has floated a new flavor on top of the brass, introducing female vocalist DD Bastros as their featured singer. She's not the band's first female lead — Texas powerhouse Lou Ann Barton (Fabulous Thunderbirds, Double Trouble, Tilt-A-Whirl) was a band member in the early 1980s, but never recorded with them. But the band's sound has been dominated by male leads, until now.
Bastros brings an uptown approach but still manages to get down and roll around with some hard rockin' blues. Although Roomful is a big band (currently carrying eight members including newly installed vocalist Bastros), they don't adhere to the classic big band sound, leaning instead into a mash-up of soul, rock and roll, boogie-woogie, and jump blues.
