By Ken Wallis.
Rosedale Junction is the crossroads of traditional American born and raised blues, country, R&B and good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll. The band was founded by Toby Soriero who’s based in Boston. The band features a wide diversity of blues-based music with a multitude of musicians contributing. Once you start playing the album, you’ll get a glimpse of past, present, and future blues. To put it simply, the music is breathtaking.
Ken Wallis interviewed Toby Soriero for his radio show Blue Source International. The following are excerpts from that interview.
Ken Wallis
The group is Rosedale Junction…the album is Stompin’ On The Front Porch…the song we just heard was Chasing The Devil Blues and if there's a band that chases the blues this is it…Rosedale Junction and joining us is Toby Soriero. Toby thanks for coming on the show.
Toby Soriero
Sure…great to be here.
Ken Wallis
So, tell us a little bit about the band…this is your debut CD for Rosedale Junction?
Toby Soriero
It is…it really started out as a studio project given what's going on the past year. We generally, typically play in an acoustic blues duo out of Boston but when everything shut down, I was looking for something a little bit different to spend some time on musically. So, I put together a project…I was able to get into the studio by June and July. It really worked with a lot of great musicians remotely who were also doing the same thing…a lot of session players in the blues field. The song you mentioned for example John Lee Sanders is a great blues veteran who actually spent some time up in Canada and does the vocals on that. It was a great opportunity…mostly original material and it kind of does span the blues genre…everything from maybe some Texas Shuffle…some Classical Electric Blues and some Acoustic Delta Blues. I worked with a different variety of musicians for the different types of songs and I was really you just thrilled how it came out.
Ken Wallis
And where did the band name come from?
Toby Soriero
That's a great question…given the music and the song selection…it spans the variety of what I would call Blues Americana…a little bit of Country…a little bit of Delta Blues…a little bit of Electric Blues. The name really comes from where it all originated from…Rosedale Mississippi and Robert Johnson. The crossroads to me not only represented that famous historical story you hear about, but really a crossroads of those genres. So, crossroads of that music… Country Blues…Delta Blues…That's really what you end up with in what you would call Blues Americana. It's a little bit of all that and it really all derives from what came out of the Mississippi Delta.
Ken Wallis
As soon as I read the title of the album 'Stompin’ On The Front Porch' it immediately elicited something in my mind…how did you come about that title?
Toby Soriero
It’s funny because the photo on the album cover, I took several years ago. I was traveling and I happened to see this house and it conjured up that image of maybe people listening or playing that type of music sitting on the porch having a good time and dancing. Because that's really what the music is meant to do. I was trying to go for putting together a selection of songs that makes you want to have a good time…makes you want to get outside and dance around with people and I hope that's what people do when they listen to it.
Ken Wallis
There are seven original songs on the album and a few covers…as far as the original songs are concerned how do you go about writing those?
Toby Soriero
I start first with a storyline which a lot of them are…a lot of them are stories and from that I try to come up with a chord progression or a melody that would fit it and especially with the mood. Some of those like Bourbon Man is more of that Delta Blues sound…so I worked on the musical part of it on my resonator and open tuning because I wanted to write something in in that sound. I think Prison Yard Blues might be something more you associate with maybe a typical kind of slow electric blues band and again I wanted a song that reflected that part of blues music. I think from the lyrical standpoint I try and come up with story lines which if you go back to the historical blues songs and the great blues songs… they really all do tell a story. I think that's what those musicians way back in the day we're trying to do is tell stories through their music and so yeah that's definitely what I was going for.
Ken Wallis
You mentioned Prison Blues which is a great song, and you’ve got a terrific video out there right now. Where was that shot?
Toby Soriero
Yeah that was a lot of fun…we actually shot the day after Christmas…there's a state park here in Massachusetts and it was really interesting because we went out there with one of my son's friends…we put him in a prison jumpsuit with an orange suit and there were some tourists out there…people getting out the day after Christmas on a nice sunny day walking in the park and they kind of looked like a little strange…like where did this guy come from? We shot that there…and we've got another great video coming out probably in a few weeks which is going to be for the song The Blizzard Of 73 that's going to be actually an animated cartoon video done by the artists who did, I think it was Magnolia Road by the Allman Betts band and that one we're really looking forward to because that's going to be another story...in a truly inspired story inspired by real life events. The video is going to really capture what's in the lyrics which a lot of that really happened.
Ken Wallis
Again, it’s Rosedale Junction… the album is Stompin’ On The Front Porch…where can our listeners get a hold of the album?
Toby Soriero
It is on all major streaming and online sources so definitely Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music, Amazon…it's pretty much out there. We just only initially did a digital release. We may do a vinyl print later in the year but right now it is pretty much available digitally everywhere and if you go to our website which is rosedalejunction.com there should be a link there that brings you to a menu of those sites.
Ken Wallis
What are your plans when it starts to clear up? Are you guys gonna start touring?
Toby Soriero
That's a good question…we gotta see…that would be really fun to do…even if it's maybe some blues festivals or limited engagements. I think part of the problem is like you said, we're all waiting to see what happens and there will be a mad rush of everybody booking something everywhere. Ideally that would be something we'd love to do. I'd certainly love to do it but we'll have wait and see at this point.
Ken Wallis
Toby it's a thoroughly enjoyable album and I really thank you for your time. It's been great chatting with you.
Toby Soriero
Great Ken…it's great meeting you… I appreciate the support and I hope people enjoy listening to it
Website: rosedalejunction.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RosedaleJunction
Instagram: www.instagram.com/Rosedalejunction