PAWTUCKET — The hippest blues recording studio in New England may be in the basement of a nondescript gray house on a side street in this sprawling suburban town. Harmonica masters Jerry Portnoy and Billy Boy Arnold, New Orleans guitarslinger Bryan Lee, local pianist Eric "Two Scoops" Moore, former Roomful of Blues reedman Doug James, and the late rock-and-roll pioneer Rosco Gordon have all recorded or mixed here in the past two years, as has Duke Robillard, the studio’s owner and genial host.

"I only set up a studio so I could produce my own records," Robillard, who’s wearing one of his trademark bold Hawaiian shirts, explains. "It’s every musician’s dream to be able to just walk downstairs and record. I really hadn’t thought of producing anybody else here except maybe a few friends, but it’s snowballed, because people hear the sounds and they want to record here."

Once they arrive, they may be tempted to move in. After a few courtesy barks from Lucy, Robillard’s friendly long-haired dachshund, visitors step into his kitchen and walk down the hall past a faux marble bathroom with a swan-shaped water faucet, then turn left and downstairs. Immediately walls lined with leopard-print fabric and cool decorative touches like a fuzzy, high-heeled-shoe-shaped chair and a wall of old stereo speakers — every one powered up — come into view. A TV that seems from the ’60s is built into the wall beneath the stairs. Mannequins and peacock feathers catch the eye, and after passing through a hanging veil of beads, you step into a combination bar and guitar workshop that’s decorated in Bettie Page and Varga and sports a band of monkey statues on a tabletop.

"In between takes you can watch a movie or listen to records," Robillard says as Lucy hangs on his words. "I’ve got a full bar, so anybody’s welcome to make themselves a drink, and the refrigerator is always full of beer, and I always have fruit and snacks. People can just walk around the house, and Lucy loves the company. I think this is what recording should be like."

Even the recording space itself is comfortable and tidy. As Robillard leans over a 24-track sound console and runs through some rough mixes in Duke’s Mood Room, as he’s tagged the studio, I see that the leopard-skin motif is broken up by his own sharp photographs and souvenirs of roughly 35 years in the trenches of blues, jazz, and R&B. This day he’s wrapping up a session for singer Dennis McCarthy, and that’s his own crisp guitar playing coming back through the ADAT machines and NS-10 speakers under McCarthy’s voice.

"Most of the time I get to use my band or most of my band for these projects." Robillard founded Roomful of Blues in the late 1960s and has gone on to a much-decorated career as a roots-genre-jumping solo artist. He also played with the Fabulous Thunderbirds for a spell; now he belongs to a jazz-blues guitar trio with J. Geils and Gerry Beaudoin, and he has sessions for everyone from Ruth Brown to Bob Dylan on his résumé.

"I prefer to work with kind of a house band situation," he continues, "because the people who come to me do so because they want a special style and sound — anything from a swing-era thing to R&B from the ’60s and everything between. My guys can cover all of that, and I’ve listened to it all and gotten to play and record with a lot of the masters."

These days Robillard is an acknowledged master himself. Early next year Hal Leonard Publishing will issue a book on him and the guitar styles he plays; the package will include an instructional CD he recorded. For now, the most recent example of his skill and taste on disc is Living with the Blues, which the Stony Plain label released several months ago. He’s already recording another blues album, and he has a jazz CD ready for release in early 2003.

Living with the Blues captures the raunchier side of Robillard’s music, from his impassioned take on Freddie King’s sexual primer "Use What You Got" to the instrumental "Stratisfied" to "Buy Me a Dog," which name-checks Lucy as it disses the crumbling strata of human relationships. There’s also "Hard Road," Robillard’s first solo acoustic blues recording.

He’ll be playing more unplugged music later this month when he joins the Back Porch Blues tour, a revue that will also feature Charlie Musselwhite, Taj Mahal, and Deborah Coleman. Then he’ll be off to cross the country in a white van with a matching trailer for the third time in a year that’s also included two European tours. That’s typical for Robillard, who’s spent much of his life on the world’s highways and stages. Will he ever tire of the road and retire to the studio?

"The people I record are artists I like," he replies. "I relate to their music and really enjoying doing it, so it’s not like I’m in this as a business. I may have to make the studio a real business at some point, but I enjoy touring and performing more."

MONTGOMERY JOINS WINTER. In the ’90s, locally based harmonica giant Jerry Portnoy was tapped to join Eric Clapton’s band. Now another noted New England harp player has been drafted by a blues and rock legend.

James Montgomery’s new gig as Johnny Winter’s right-hand man started early this summer at a biker bar in New London; so far it’s taken him to Europe and on a series of American club and festival dates. "This is something Johnny’s management has been calling me about for the past few years, and this year everything actually went forward," Montgomery explains over the phone from his Providence home. "They were looking for a singing harmonica player rather than a second guitarist, because the way Johnny plays he doesn’t need another guitarist, and the harp doesn’t get in the way. Johnny plays hard but isn’t really very animated on stage. My job is to provide another focal point and get out there and hop around."

And, of course, to blow the kind of gutsy, big-toned harp Montgomery learned as a teenager in his native Detroit, where he sat in with John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, James Cotton, and the other great bluesmen who played the after-hours clubs and the dives along Hastings Street. That apprenticeship served him well. He started the James Montgomery Blues Band in 1970 while attending Boston University; three years later, he led the group to Capricorn Records and through their debut album, First Time Out. Over the decades, he’s maintained his reputation as a blues-rock powerhouse and bandleader, gigging around the world and making a few solo recordings, including 1991’s critically heralded The Oven Is On (Tone-Cool) and last year’s deep-rooted Bring It On Home (Conqueroot).

Montgomery joins Winter at a time when the Texas guitarslinger’s health, a much-debated topic among fans because of his history of drug problems and the troubles those with albinoism encounter with aging, may be up the upswing. "He has trouble seeing," Montgomery reports, "so he’s got to be helped on stage, but once he’s up in front of the microphone, Johnny’s getting better all the time in terms of his energy and performance. He looks a little frail, but he’s putting all his heart and soul into it. Typically, I’ll get to sing about four songs and Johnny will do most of the singing, since of course it’s his show. It’s really a pleasure for me to play with him. We’ve known each other for probably 30 years. The first time we played together is when he was in a band with Muddy Waters and James Cotton."

Recently Montgomery joined Winter in the studio as Johnny cut some tracks for a new album produced by singer-songwriter Tom Hambridge, who worked with Susan Tedeschi on her gold-selling Just Won’t Burn (Tone-Cool). Montgomery will still have plenty of time for his own band, and he reports that traveling to Europe with Winter has opened up touring possibilities for him there as well. Also on his agenda is a series of fundraisers to be scheduled over the next few months for the New England Blues Society’s Medical Program, which assists the region’s blues performers with ongoing health care.

MAXWELL IN THE STUDIO. America’s devaluation of its first-rate blues and jazz artists is a part of the history of the music, and so is the flight of these artists to Europe to find work and record deals. The latest to seek relief on foreign soil is Handy Award–nominated pianist David Maxwell. After decades in the trenches with Freddie King, Bonnie Raitt, Ronnie Earl, and others, Maxwell released his excellent solo debut, Maximum Blues Piano (Tone-Cool), in 1997. Critics and blues fans were wowed by his command of the keys, from the Otis Spann echoes in his hardcore blues to his imaginative fusions of blues with European classical music.

After searching several years for a company that would be willing to record a follow-up, Maxwell has inked a contract with the French label Dixiefrog and begun recording a CD abroad that will feature former Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin and other guest stars. Meanwhile, the Concord resident can be seen closer to home at the Regattabar in Harvard Square’s Charles Hotel next Friday, November 15, when he’ll be backed by local MVPs Gordon Beadle on sax, Marty Ballou on bass, guitarist Mike Williams, and Per Hanson on drums.