Roomful of Blues singer credits Bellingham teacher

It’s been just over five decades since Roomful of Blues played their first gig. And over that time, there have been about as many different players in the revolving lineup. But while the faces have changed, the music has always been steeped in the blues. Of course, there are all different sorts of blues, and when the Rhode Island-based horn-drenched eight-piece band returns to the Regattabar in Cambridge for two sets on Sept. 13, they’ll be taking listeners on a blues-based musical trip.

Phil Pemberton, who grew up in Bellingham and currently lives in Auburn, has been Roomful’s vocalist for just shy of 10 years, replacing Dave Howard, who wasn’t fond of the band’s busy touring schedule. Pemberton, who had come up through a number of previous bands – the rock outfit Big Time when he was 19, the blues band Brother Soul later on, then his blues and soul group the Phil Pemberton Band – calls his experience in Roomful “like being in a university of blues. You go there to get your masters. You can go in with whatever you think is blues. For instance, you might be a very New Orleans-based guy where everything has that New Orleans feel to it. But then you get into Roomful, and you have to play so many different styles. They do old-style Kansas City swing stuff, straight-on Chicago blues, big band ballads. All sorts of things.”

Referring to the audience, he added, “When you go to a Roomful show, you get a real lesson in all kinds of blues-based music.”

In discussing how he made his way through various musical ranks that eventually led to his Roomful gig, Pemberton kept mentioning how advice and suggestions from different people in his life kept leading to unexpected changes, some of them positive, some of them not. Actually, the only negative advice he recalls came very early in.

“My dad had a good record collection,” he said. “He had Otis Redding, Van Morrison, Ray Charles, Al Green, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, the Beatles. And I remember him sitting in a room, playing guitar and singing. So, as a little kid I always wanted to sing. But when I was in elementary school, maybe around 9 or 10. I tried out for the chorus and the chorus teacher said, ‘You really don’t have the voice to be a singer, you should really try an instrument.’ Unfortunately, I listened to her. So, for years I wouldn’t sing in front of people because I thought I was a bad singer. I played trumpet and bass and drums, but I didn’t sing. But when I was about 18, I sang in front of a friend of mine. He was already in bands, and he had asked me to sing some notes into a microphone so he could work out a demo recording he was making. When I did that, he said, ‘Wow! You can sing!’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ So, we started a band together. And that was Big Time.”

Pemberton believes that about 50 percent of the songs that band performed were composed by him, which was a direct result of a different teacher, one from high school.

“I had a teacher there who realized that I thought in a different way,” he said. “I was in his poetry class and he was very encouraging. He’d say ‘Why don’t you try this,’ or ‘When you wrote this, what did you mean?’ The next thing you know, I was writing poetry all the time.”

Pemberton’s transition from singing rock to singing blues came via advice from his drummer in Big Time.

“He was into Stevie Ray Vaughan, into Roomful of Blues, into the Fabulous Thunderbirds,” he recalled. “He started giving me tapes of their music. He said I had a voice for blues and soul music, and said I should try some of that. It was great, because I stared saying, ‘Who is this? Where does this come from?’ Then I started going to Stereo Jack’s [record shop] and grabbed lots of blues albums.”

It was during his tenure in his self-titled band that a right-time, right-place situation, along with a few phone calls, put Pemberton and Roomful of Blues together.

“I was playing in my band a few nights a week, and one week our regular keyboard player couldn’t make it,” he said. “So, as a replacement we had Travis Colby, who was Roomful’s keyboard player. I didn’t really know much about Roomful at the time, but after the gig, Travis said, ‘I’m getting married soon. Do you guys want to play my wedding?’ I said that I didn’t do wedding band stuff and he said that was OK, that we could just play what we played at the gig. I showed up at the wedding with the band, and some of the guests were the members of Roomful. Soon after that I got a phone call from Ephraim, their drummer. He asked if I’d be interested in doing the Roomful gig. I said sure. Then Travis called and said ‘Ephraim told me you might be interested in doing the Roomful gig.’ I said, ‘Sure, where do I sign up?’ Then a month later Chris Vachon, the guitarist, called and said, ‘I heard you might be interested and we might be looking for another singer.’ I joined in October, 2009. But I wanted to get to know the guys and learn the songs. So, I suggested that I go out with them whenever I could between October and January and sit in a little bit. First, I did three songs and then I did six or eight, and in January I was in the band.”

Now, with a decade of gigs and touring around the world on his résumé, and a new Roomful album in the process of being recorded, Pemberton still thinks about that bad advice he received all those years ago and, in fact, has been proactive and positive about it.

“That teacher at Bellingham Stall Brook School who told me I shouldn’t sing ...” he said. “I have sent her every recording, every CD I’ve done since then. I wanted to make sure that someone like her, someone in her frame of mind, never does that to another kid.”

Roomful of Blues appears at the Regattabar in Cambridge on Sept. 13. Showtimes are 7:30 and 10 p.m. Tickets: $28. Info: 617-395-7757.

Ed Symkus can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.

Upcoming concerts and club dates

Sept. 7:

Jazz trombonist and seashellist Steve Turre brings his band to Scullers in Boston. (8 p.m.)

Sept. 8:

The trio called Triton plays traditional music from Northwestern Europe at The Burren in Somerville. James Carty opens. (4 p.m.)

Sept. 12:

Longtime Boston rockers Jim’s Big Ego – fronted by singer-songwriter Jim Infantino – have two shows at Club Passim in Cambridge. (Also on Sept. 13; 8 p.m. both dates)

Sept. 13:

Rhett Butler, founding member of Old 97’s, has a solo acoustic gig at City Winery in Boston. (8 p.m.)