West Coast blues-rocker
Tommy Castro
has released 16 albums on several labels, played 150 to 200 dates a year for a loyal and ever-growing audience, and won awards and respect from his peers. He has remained a vital musician, pushing his music ever forward.
Castro & the Painkillers
'
A Bluesman Came to Town
, produced by
Tom Hambridge
, is arguably the first blues concept album. It's about a farm boy who discovers the blues, learns to play guitar, and hits the road. One needn't follow the story to enjoy it. A remarkably diverse set, its 13 original songs careen across roadhouse, Chicago, and modern electric blues, roots rock, soul, and even funk.
"Somewhere" is a swampy, wrangling slide guitar blues with wailing harmonica by guest
Jimmy Hall
. The first-person lyrics highlight the protagonist's desire to escape his dull rural life. The title track offers a soaring vocal and swirling leads in a story about the beginnings of an itinerant wanderer offering experiential advice against meeting the Devil at the crossroads. Oakland blues queen
Terrie Odabi
duets with
Castro
on "Child Don't Go," a rocking gospel-blues that's as much Saturday night as it is Sunday morning. "You to Hold on To" was inspired by the
Stax
Otis Redding
-
Steve Cropper
fakebook. It showcases
's resonant emotional power as a singer. The Wurlitzer piano, organ, and entwining guitars buoy and frame his protagonist's pleading lyric.
The sleek, funky "Hustle" reflects
James Brown
's influence, with a mantra-like vamp from fingerpopping staccato horns, wah-wah guitar, and an octave-drop bassline. "Blues Prisoner" offers a lowdown steamy drama worthy of
Albert King
in a 12-bar blues played in 3/4 time. It contrasts
's testifying, confessional vocal,
Kevin McKendree
's cautionary upright piano, and mean single-string guitar fills in a dark, unruly blues storm. On "I Caught a Break,"
's raspy, punchy delivery recalls
Delbert McClinton
's in a
Chuck Berry
-esque stomp, whereas "Women Drugs and Alcohol" is a tale of vice, pleasure, and pain in the dialect of barnstorming blues-rock. The atmospheric guitar intro to "Draw the Line" gives way to a midtempo, minor-key Chicago-style shuffle driven by Wurlitzer electric piano, reverbed tom-toms, and
's razor-sharp leads. His road-weary voice confesses the protagonist's wandering, losses, and soul-defeating compromises. "I Want to Go Back Home" is a return to soul as
's croon evokes the rough sweetness of
Redding
, as well as the roadhouse desperation of
Southside Johnny
. It features gorgeous alto sax playing from guest
Deanna Bogart
. "Bring It on Back" delivers a lyric about a soul-quaking epiphany amid nasty, distorted, slide-saturated blues-rock; it sets up a stripped-down reprise of "Somewhere" with just acoustic slide and muffled drum kit. All told,
is a towering achievement for
. Through the roots and blues vocabulary, excellent songwriting, musical imagination, and inspired performances, he offers an unflinching, behind-the-scenes look at the joys, perils, and defeats in a traveling musician's life. ~ Thom Jurek