No 3 Ways About It : Guitarist Duke Robillard Likes His Blues-Rock-Jazz Careers

Duke Robillard, who opens for the Texas Tornados at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano tonight and Wednesday, is a guitar virtuoso who is splitting himself three ways.

His highest-profile gig is as a member of the popular blues/rock group the Fabulous Thunderbirds--he joined in 1990 after Jimmie Vaughan left. He splits the rest of his time between two distinct solo careers--one with his own blues/rock trio (with which he’s currently touring), the other as a jazz/swing picker.

“It’s pretty unusual, I must admit,” he said during a recent phone interview from a tour stop in Eugene, Ore. “As far as the jazz records go, I really haven’t done much touring behind that format. I put a little bit of it into the show I’m playing, but basically, it’s separate from the blues and rock ‘n’ roll. There’re separate audiences for that.

“A lot of people who come out to see me just like my guitar playing, like all the different styles I play in,” he continued. “But other people just like the jazz records and don’t listen to the other stuff. They’re jazz fans. It’s different. It’s unusual, but I think it’s interesting that I have these different avenues I can take.”

Guitar Player magazine has called the 44-year-old Rhode Island native as “without a doubt the most consummate (guitarist), the one able to cover the widest range of styles with the most authority.”

When he was just out of high school, Robillard founded the East Coast powerhouse-with-horns band Roomful of Blues. He recorded two albums with Roomful in the ‘70s before proceeding to tour with rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon; to record two albums with Muddy Waters’ backup group, the Legendary Blues Band; and to record several of his own albums, among them the recent “After Hours Swing Session” on the Rounder label. His work with the Thunderbirds can be heard on their latest album, “Walk That Walk, Talk That Talk.”

The eclectic nature of his tastes becomes apparent when he discusses his influences: “early rock ‘n’ roll greats like James Burton, Chuck Berry and Link Wray, and in jazz, people like Charlie Christian, Tiny Grimes and Oscar Moore. In the blues, it was always T-Bone (Walker) and B.B. (King)--you know, the classic players. When I first discovered T-Bone, that was like a revelation.”

Author Helen Oakley devoted an entire appendix of her tome “Stormy Monday Blues: The T-Bone Walker Story” to Robillard’s reflections. But Robillard doesn’t live completely in the past. He said he likes to keep up with modern music.

“I listen to what’s going on on the radio, and I incorporate some of the sounds and things that I hear out there into my own music. I’m influenced by it all to some extent.”

Replacing Jimmie Vaughan (brother of the late Stevie Ray) in the TBirds could have been fairly daunting, considering the family legacy and the fan loyalty involved (indeed, the Thunderbirds replaced Vaughan with two guitarists: Robillard and Kid Bangham play side-by-side in the group). But Robillard says it was a relatively smooth transition.

“I’d known all those guys since the early ‘70s,” he said. “We’d been friends and jammed a lot together.” In fact, T-Bird bassist Preston Hubbard and drummer Fran Christina had been members of Roomful. “Jimmie was on one of my albums. I thought of it as a natural thing.

“We do get the ‘Where’s Jimmie?’ people every now and then--he was really a great stylist and a big visual part of the band too--but most people are accepting of myself and the Kid.”

Between all his various projects, Robillard says he finds little time for any kind of private life. If he’s not cutting an album, with the Thunderbirds or on his own, he’s in the studio guesting on a friend’s project. And if he’s not in the studio, he can be found on the road--especially in Europe, where, as with most American blues musicians, his popularity far exceeds what he enjoys here at home.

“Let me put it this way: I love to be home (which is Louisville, Ky. these days), but after not too long, I begin to get the itch and I have to go back to work. I need to get the playing out of my system, and that’ll always be a part of me.”

* Duke Robillard and his band open for the Texas Tornados tonight and Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. $25. (714) 496-8930. (The Red Devils will open for the Tornados on Thursday.)