Dave Howard is happily retired. But that doesn’t mean his working days have come to and end. In fact, the 51 year-old blues singer from Warwick, Rhode Island is thoroughly enjoying his new job, lead vocalist of the legendary band Roomful of Blues. In the fall of 2006, Howard landed a role he was ideally sculpted for, teaming up with Rhode Island’s premier rhythm and blues act, to tour the country. Behind him are the days of hammering out two jobs, rising early in the morning to work his day job, rushing home, and then heading out to the bars for a late evening. “I worked two jobs all my life,” reflects Howard of his 30+ years as a City of Warwick employee. “It got to be tiring”.

If anyone deserves to have “made it” to the next level in the music world, it’s Dave Howard. An integral part of the New England blues scene for years, Howard’s gritty, baritone voice arrived on the music scene in the mid 1970’s with the band Old No.7, covering everything from folk to rock to country music. Howard eventually teamed up with 18 year-old guitar wizard and fellow Rhode Islander Neal Vitullo, who had been playing in a band with Howard’s friend Stovall Brown, and co-founded Young Neal & the Vipers. The Vipers rose to prominence in the New England and New York bar scene, working over 250 nights per year, and eventually caught the eye of the mighty Atlantic Records. But the Atlantic deal never materialized, and Howard stepped aside in October 1989 to form his own roots-rock blues band Dave Howard and The High Rollers with guitarist Tommy Ferraro. After a brief return to the Vipers in 1991 (recording “Hooloovoo”, the Vipers debut effort, which sold well regionally), Howard and the High Rollers again teamed up, recorded three CD’s, and continued to “slug it out in the bars for 13 or 14 years,” as Howard describes it. With the High Rollers, Howard was able to carve out a second living and return to the music he loved most, unlike the direction that Atlantic wanted to send his previous band. “It was an ill-fated deal,” said Howard of the whole ordeal. “Atlantic was in real turmoil at the time.”

Flash forward to 2006. Howard had just landed what he would consider to be a dream job, replacing Mark Dufresne as the lead vocalist in Roomful of Blues. “I first saw them (Roomful) in the Spring of 1971 at Roger Williams Park when Duke Robillard was fronting the band, way back when I was in high school,” Howard recalls. “I’ve always loved the band”. In between gigs with the band, Howard has also managed to put out his own CD, an all-original progressive country record titled “I Tried To Tell You”. His ability as a vocalist to cross over from blues to country is a result of his diverse musical background, and Howard belts out the material on “I Tried To Tell You” in fine fashion, especially evident on standout tracks like the steel guitar driven honky-tonk “Somebody Gets Hurt”, the slow hurtful “Look of Lifelong Sorrow”, or the driving uptempo rhythms of “I Don’t Want to Hear It”. It was this same musical diversity that made Dave Howard such an ideal candidate for the Roomful job. And while it was a difficult decision to leave the High Rollers, Howard feels blessed with the opportunity to move forward in his musical career.

Howard hit the stage for his first gig with the band on October 12th, 2006. The evening went really well, and he hasn’t looked back since. “I love it,” says Howard of being on stage with Roomful. “They’re a great bunch of people and a talented group of musicians. Roomful of Blues has lined up a tour beginning in early March that will travel the East Coast, playing a lot of small theatres along the way. Howard has made the successful transformation and is growing more comfortable in his new role. Yet, he remains modest and relishes his opportunity to play music at the next level. “I’m a blues singer,” says Howard when asked to describe himself as a musician. “I guess that’s the nicest thing anyone could call me.”

Check out www.davehowardmusic.net or www.roomful.com for upcoming tour dates and more on Dave Howard’s musical career.