May 2003

Gratitude, the seventh Tommy Castro Band CD, and the first on Castro’s new Heart & Soul Records, is aptly named. The San Francisco-based guitar player pays tribute to his influences with 12 songs originally performed by Sam & Dave, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, Albert King, Wilson Pickett, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy. Castro and his bandmates are up to the task of covering such blues and R&B giants. In fact, one of the most impressive things of this session is that not only do they do such a great job on the songs, but that they do it without ever sounding like they’re just copying the originals. These are their versions, but at the same time, the feel, the swing, the texture of the original artists are apparent. In addition to Castro’s hot guitar chops on all the tracks, the horns of Keith Crossan (sax), Tom Poole (trumpet) and Michael Peliquin (second tenor) nail the soul sound on “I Take What I Want,” “Come Back Baby” and “Lovey Dovey.” Randy McDonald handles bass with Billy Lee Lewis on drums. And a few guests add to the mix, like Sista Monica Parker, who sings the Carla Thomas part on “Lovey Dovey. Curtis Salgado who blows harp on the great version of Chuck Berry’s “Tulane” and contributes vocals on that cut plus “I Take What I Want” and “I Found a Love.” And rounding off the effort is John Turk on piano and organ who really shows his stuff on Howlin’ Wolf’s “44,” and “I Found a Love,” originally done by The Falcons with Wilson Pickett. All the songs are performed with lots of love, enthusiasm and talent --- a winning combination.

Mark K. Miller

Blues Bytes