People of a certain age remember back when rockabilly was nascent and R&B – rhythm & blues – really was rhythm and blues.

The Insomniacs, a hot blues band based in Portland, Ore., that will perform tonight at the Torch Club, makes that kind of music today, in a mix of vintage swing, blues and classic rock 'n' roll played on vintage instruments pushed through Magnatone and Ampeg tube amps.

The fact that the group is led by a 26-year-old "youngster" named Vyasa ("Ve-aahsh") Dodson is just proof of the genre's enduring appeal, says band member Dean Mueller. Dodson, who writes the band's material and also sings, was a guitarist in the Stevie Ray Vaughan-Eric Clapton style until he discovered jump blues and became a follower of a different set of guitarists, including Junior Watson and Sacramento's Charlie Baty (formerly of Little Charlie & the Nightcats and now fronting the Little Charlie Caravan).

For his part, Mueller plays a gut-string upright bass. "The blues just speaks to me," Mueller said in a recent telephone interview from his Portland, Ore., home. A former computer designer with a degree in electrical engineering, Mueller hadn't played music for a while when he picked up his bass and attended Centrum's Port Townsend Country Blues Festival in Port Townsend, Wash. While there, he jammed with blues icons Honeyboy Edwards, Louisiana Red and John Cephas.

"I found my home," Mueller said. That was in 2004. He's been back to the festival yearly since then and is now on the faculty.

The Insomniacs was formed in March 2006. Dodson and Mueller had played together in a rockabilly bar band (which featured Mueller's upright bass and Dodson's 1951 Fender "Nocaster" guitar). "It was an all-right band," Mueller said, "but it wasn't meant to go anywhere." They joined local musicians Alex Shakeri on keyboards and Dave Melyan on drums to form the Insomniacs.

Their debut album, "Left Coast Blues," reached No. 5 on national blues charts.

"We had been together about four months when we recorded it," Mueller said. "We started recording in July 2006, released it locally in December, and basically just sold it at our gigs in our hometown and Seattle and Eugene." Then Delta Groove records expressed interest in it and released it nationally Aug. 21, 2007.
"The album was self-produced and recorded in my house," he said.

"We liked how it sounded and tried to evaluate if it was just going to be used to get gigs, or if we wanted a regional release or what. And then … it got a lot of attention really fast."

For the band, that meant an expanded sphere of touring. Tonight's show at the Torch Club – "We've heard great things about the Torch Club," Mueller said – will be its first visit to Sacramento.

In addition to songs on "Left Coast Blues," the band will play "six or seven new originals that we've tried out on the road," he said.

"We do a lot of listening to old stuff," Mueller said. "Some of what we like – East Coast country blues – predates the '50s stuff, even.

"We don't copy it, but when we're (traveling) in the van, we listen to it and we all try to stay in the frame of mind of the music. We like that.

"And drummer Dave just wants to play it like it wants to be played."

The Insomniacs

WHEN: 9 tonight
WHERE: Torch Club, 904 15th St., Sacramento
TICKETS: $8
INFORMATION: (916) 443-2797