E-Mail This Article to a Friend Thunderbird calls Troy Gonyea brings his Howl to Boston BY TED DROZDOWSKI

Notes tumble like stones from Troy Gonyea’s guitar, round and heavy, demanding attention as they etch the stumbling cadence of "Not Alone," a powerful song that’s become a signature for the Howl. The Saturday-night crowd at Ralph’s in Worcester fall under gentle hypnosis. Heads shake, bodies sway, and transportation occurs.

Like the guitarist, many in the tightly packed audience have closed their eyes and gone elsewhere — to a place where music is manna, fuel for the soul. They return there often during the Howl’s headlining set as the band ricochet between the garage punk snarl of "(Do the) Curl Up and Die" and the epic sweep of "The Toll," which begins as an acoustic search for salvation but soon summons the electrified spirits of Jimi Hendrix and the early Allman Brothers.

All of the Howl’s tunes — including the 10 on their debut CD, Megahorn Breakdown Suite (Lotus Eater), the release of which they’ll celebrate with a show at the Paradise next Saturday, February 12 — seem sprinkled with a little Southern dust thanks to the twang and the moan in Gonyea’s voice and his bluesy musical roots. Hell, until he started the Howl with his lifelong friends, the flexible and muscular rhythm team of bassist Jeff Berg and drummer Tommy Callahan plus organist Mark Stevens (who left before the disc was recorded), the Auburn-born Gonyea was en route to blues-guitar stardom. He developed his estimable chops in regional blues outfits, starting before he was old enough to suck down a legal beer. He caught the ears of former Muddy Waters harmonica man Jerry Portnoy, who put Gonyea in his band. When Portnoy stopped touring regularly, he hipped his favorite harmonica player, the great Kim Wilson, to Gonyea. Wilson drafted the six-stringer into his solo group and then into the Fabulous Thunderbirds, where Gonyea made the leap from club stages to outdoor festivals and arenas.

What made Gonyea stand out in a genre full of well-studied, historically informed guitarists were his improvisations, his wide tonal palette, and his smart phrasing. He could invoke the ghosts of great blues string benders from T-Bone Walker to Magic Sam. He pushed his solos and his melodic accompaniments with rock-and-roll edginess. His emergence seemed assured, but in April, he left the T-Birds to form the Howl.

"Performing in the Thunderbirds allowed me to play outside of a strict blues bag, and that opened my ears to all kinds of music," he explains. "Starting about five years ago, I began listening closely to early Hendrix, George Jones, Hank Williams, and even the Beatles and the Stones. Then I progressed up to Morphine, who had such an organic sound, and I got really deep into garage stuff like the Detroit Cobras." At the same time, he started writing songs. "That came out of all the down time touring with the Thunderbirds: six hours on a plane, two hours at an airport, six more hours in a hotel before the gig — all that to play for an hour if you’re lucky — and then do it all over again."

Gonyea wanted to give his songs life, and the Howl’s rocking attack became the right route. "I feel like the Howl is what everything I’ve done until now has led me to. The sounds and style and territory the band can cover is open. It’s really allowed me to get my singing together. The trio format lets me take my playing anywhere I want it to go, but it has to be somewhere I really want to take the music. For me, everything the Howl does has to be real, the way that Otis Redding and the great Stax records were real."

The Howl have been given the keys to Worcester by that city’s rock-club goers. The Paradise show is their first serious assault on Boston. And they have grander aspirations. As the group’s manager, Dickie Cummings, a long-time fan of Gonyea’s and a former partner in the Big Wheel Recreation (the Hives, Jimmy Eat World) indie label, puts it: "There are so many fake rock-and-roll bands out there today. Troy and the Howl — they have a real authenticity about them. People need to hear that."

The Howl appear next Saturday, February 12, at the Paradise, 967 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, with the Ferns, Violet Nine, and Baby Strange; call (617) 562-8800.