CAFE SOCIETY BAND WINNING FANS WITH ITS EARTHY, NO-FRILLS APPROACH TO ROCK AND R&B.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

DON'T BRING YOUR MING vase or other delicate objects to a Cafe R&B show. The steamy blues-rock quintet has been known to shake the room at packed shows up and down the coast.

Much of the band's appeal lies in its single-named frontwoman Roach, a pint-size powerhouse in an early Tina Turner-style blond wig who grinds her way through such classics as ``Born Under a Bad Sign,'' ``Sitting on Top of the World'' and Cafe R&B originals with such wit and infectious joy that hordes of young females, a demographic that doesn't normally relate to blues or genuine rhythm and blues, crowd gigs.

Recent standing-room-only shows at Cozy's Bar & Grill in Sherman Oaks and the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena were eye-openers for anyone who mourns the days when music was played not by computers but actual humans with a natural feel for blues-drenched sounds.

``I grew up listening to people like Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone and Howlin' Wolf and I know that when they went on stage, they gave it everything they had,'' Roach said from the Encino home she shares with husband and Cafe R&B guitarist/songwriter Byl Carruthers and their year-old son. ``I feel everyone who sees us deserves 100 percent of me no matter how many people are out there.''

While the music is performed flawlessly, Cafe R&B - which also includes drummer Steve Klong, keyboardist Stevie Epstein and bassist Jonathan Clark - leaves room for emotion and communication between musicians and audience.

The band appears Saturday at the Mint in Los Angeles in a record-release party for the group's top-notch second album, ``Blues and All the Rest,'' available at Amazon.com, www.wholelottablues and the Cafe R&B Web site, caferandb.com.

The band was formed by Roach and Byl four years ago, after the couple took a hiatus from years on the local music scene. The group, which has played to crowds around the United States and Europe, saw its reputation grow quickly, based on word of mouth and an organic approach to promotion.

``We'd rather not go out and force it on people,'' Byl Carruthers said. ``We'd rather it happen naturally, with people hearing about us and checking us out. We wanted to play the music we love and send it up the flagpole and see what happens. In L.A., what normally happens is, you start a band with everything in place - the lawyer, the manager, the publicist. But our idea was, let's do it ourselves.''

One shot of Cafe R&B is often enough to turn an observer into an active fan. It happened to Van Nuys antiques dealer and mother of two Kim Ray, whose girlfriends took her to a Cafe R&B gig at the Mint two years ago.

``I've seen them now about 30 times,'' Ray said. ``Even though Roach is a real sex bomb on stage, she does it in a way that isn't off-putting but empowering to women. And you feel her voice right down to the bottom of your toes.''

At work, the male band members sport dark suits, with the intense, bearded Carruthers counting down the tunes and adding some of the most sizzling and well-placed fretwork in town. But all eyes are on the fascinating Roach, who brings the house down with such smartly chosen material as Memphis Minnie's ``Black Cat Blues,'' which the quintet covered on its highly praised debut disc, ``Black and White,'' and equally effective self-penned songs.

``Cafe R&B should be heard on the radio,'' Ray said. ``The fact there's not a place for them on commercial radio is another sign that radio is not serving the people who really love music.''

CAFE R&B RECORD RELEASE PARTY

Where: The Mint, 6010 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 10 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $10. Call [phone].

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