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June
2005
Tommy
Castro has earned a handle as one of the hardest working
bluesmen on the scene today, gigging on a grueling schedule
of almost 300 dates per year. But if you pay your dues
to play the blues there has to be a payoff, and, for Castro,
the dividends came when his new album, Soul Shaker [Blind
Pig], debuted at number two on Billboard’s blues
chart. Featuring guest appearances by Robert Cray, keyboardist
Jimmy Pugh, vocalist Renée Austin, and slide master
Roy Rogers, Shaker dishes up an eclectic étouffée
of rock, soul, and rhythm & blues with a dash of funk
and New Orleans groove thrown in for flavor.
“I’ve
become less interested in guitar and more interested in
being a member of the band, performing, and writing good
songs,” says Castro. “And when you’re
playing night after night, stuff really starts to happen.”
Although
Castro’s reputation is built on hot blues licks,
he didn’t plan to record a straight-ahead blues
album. Instead, Soul Shaker coalesced on the road, and
the songs developed organically.
“We
didn’t set out to make any particular kind of a
record,” he explains. “We just took each song
separately, and said, ‘What does this song want
to sound like, and what would be the best way for the
song to say what we want it to say—the feel, the
attitude, the whole thing?’ Each song took a natural
course.”
The
opener, “Just Like Me,” is a prime example.
The band—bassist Randy McDonald, saxman Keith Crossan,
and drummer Chris Sandoval—played Castro’s
first version several times before simply scrapping it
and starting anew. Now, after almost two years jamming
on the tune, it’s tight and right, with a vibe somewhere
between Booker T.’s MGs and the Rolling Stones.
Although
Castro is a confirmed Fender man—he says he played
a Les Paul “for about one minute” when he
was younger. Slinging a ’66 Strat with a rosewood
fretboard, he keeps the switch set on the neck pickup,
and plugs into a ’65 blackface Super Reverb.
“I
do everything I can to make my Strat sound warm, and then
I add the highs at the amp,” he says. “I don’t
hear a lot of comments about having great chops, but I
do hear, ‘Hey, you’ve got great tone!’”
Michael
Dregni
Original
Review (Offsite Link)
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