CD review: 'Painkiller' by Tommy Castro

Greenwich Time
By Ray Hogan
February 08, 2007

Thanks in part to his six-string prowess, Castro has been dubbed a bluesman since emerging in the mid-1990s. As his more recent releases attest, the Bay Area singer-guitarist is a soulman at heart. The best cuts on 'Painkiller' don't evoke Stevie Ray Vaughan (the standard to which all blues rockers have been unfairly held for the past two decades). Instead, the rollicking rhythm and blues - and warmly nostalgic lyrics - of 'Big Sister's Radio' and the smooth soul groove of 'Err On the Side of Love' showcase Castro's voice, which has a lived-in but passionate quality not unlike that of Delbert McClinton, whom he gets a little too close to on the funky roadhouse rocker 'It's That Time Again.' The title cut evokes the Stax Records sound with wonderful reverence.

The disc is guest-heavy (the best collaboration being a playful take on Albert Collins' 'A Good Fool is Hard to Find' with Coco Montoya) and a few of the cuts are simply filler, but 'Painkiller' is a logical step in Castro's attempt to separate himself from the blues-rock glut.
On the second to last track, 'Lonesome and Then Some,' Castro lets loose a blistering six-string solo. By then, you'll have realized that's not what this disc is about.

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