Squeezebox Stompers release third studio album

North Shore-based band Squeezebox Stompers recently released its third studio album, Roots and Branches, which is appropriately named because much like a tree it reaches far out to the different kinds of American music, with blues, cajun waltzes, two-step, jazz, hoe-downs and many others.The band draws its inspiration from many different sources like The Balfa Brothers, Clifton Chenier, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and John Delafose. They look to emulate the sounds of New Orleans, but according to their pianist, Ralph Tufo, they find inspiration from their lives right here on the North Shore.?I don’t care what the results are when I begin making music, I just do the best I can and that’s all I can do really,” said Tufo while he spoke about the inspiration of “I won’t give up on you,” one of the tracks on the new album. “The title of that song came to me one day when the demons of self-doubt were pecking away at my musical ambitions. At one point, I vowed that I wouldn’t give up on music,” Tufo said in the album.According to Tufo one of the songs on the album, “Brickyard Blues,” is about an epidemic of arson that ran rampant through Lynn from the 60s to the 80s, in which landlords would burn down their buildings in order to defraud insurance companies. The song is focused particularly on the Bencrest Rooming House fire, which killed four people on Aug. 8, 1989.The band has been together for 11 years and all are veteran musicians. Tufo and the band’s bassist, Paul Tagliamonte, are both former Lynners and have known each other since the seventh grade according to Tufo. The other members of the band came from various other bands and performances that they were involved in together, some of them award winning.According to the band’s website, SqueezboxStompers.com, Tufo and the band’s drummer, Mike Migglioz, are four time winners of the Boston Music Award with their former band, Boogaloo Swamis. Larry Plitt, the band’s guitarist, was the winner of the 2007 Boston Folk Festival Singer/Songwriter contest.The band also has a few friends who they have played with in the past who have come and gone as well as their regular members.?We’ve heard some good feedback about this latest album,” said Tufo. “People seem to really enjoy the originality of the album as well as its diversity. We play a lot of different genres on the album and people really seem to like it.”The band has even been getting some air time at radio stations across the nation, said Tufo after he sent out 250 copies of the CD to different radio stations all over the country and they have racked up over 4,000 listens on Jango.com a free internet radio site.Tufo and the rest of the Squeezebox Stompers work hard to promote themselves and have got some shows coming up to support their latest release.