Veteran swing and ska revivalists Steve Perry leads his band, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, with their new release, Roma! Roma!, their 13th studio album and first full-length ska record in more than six years, marking a new chapter for the long-running group in 2026.
The record arrives today in a hand-numbered limited vinyl pressing of 500 copies, with a ship date in mid-March. Positioning the release as a collector’s item for fans of the band’s horn-driven sound. The project follows the group’s 2024 swing album At the Pink Rat and represents a deliberate return to one of the band’s foundational influences.
Band leader and principal songwriter Steve Perry said the decision to make an all-ska album came naturally.
“After making a swing record in 2024, I felt like if I wrote a few more decent ska songs we would have a full set of decent ska too,” Perry said. “It’s not a new or old direction for the band. It’s just a more complete fleshing out of one of many influences that have been there all along.”
Roma! Roma! draws its central theme from the city of Rome, a setting Perry describes as both personal and historical. He said the concept is rooted in a formative trip taken years ago with his late wife, Yvette.
“When my recently deceased wife Yvette and I first met, we went to Rome together — that is where we fell in love,” Perry said. “So it’s personal. I also like the fact that with choosing Rome as a backdrop, the ‘Decline and Fall’ Edward Gibbon zeitgeist thing resonates.”
The album includes two newly written tracks, “Street Boners” and “SPQR Roma,” and traces ska’s lineage across its major stylistic branches, from traditional Jamaican ska through Two Tone and third-wave revivalism, while also drawing from Northern soul and Mod culture.
“I like to trace aspects of whatever genre I am working in through its evolutionary branches,” Perry said. “As an artist, I like to travel, like Colonel Kurtz, up the river of genre to try and seek its liminal source, its birthplace.”
He pointed to early British rhythm-and-blues and Mod-era recordings, including Ken Mackintosh’s 1954 instrumental “The Creep,” as reference points in shaping the record’s sound. Perry also cited Italian fashion as a visual and cultural influence on the project.
“Fashion-wise, I think Italian suiting had a great influence on the early Mod sensibilities and therefore the ska and soul look in the U.K.,” he said. “That led me right to Stadio Olimpico as the modern Roman Coliseum.”
The thematic and musical ideas converge most clearly on the album’s two new tracks. Perry said “Street Boners” reflects the Mod and Italian tailoring connection, while “SPQR Roma” channels Rome’s ancient legacy into a modern ska framework.
With Roma! Roma!, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies reaffirm their place in American ska history while revisiting the genre’s roots through a personal and historical lens. The album stands as the group’s most focused ska statement since their last full-length release in the style more than six years ago.
The limited vinyl edition is available now while supplies last, while Roma! Roma! is available on all streaming platforms.
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