Tommy Castro and The Painkillers – Closer To The Bone
14 Tracks – 51 minutes
Tommy Castro returns with his seventeenth album and eighth from Alligator Records, which began with the 2009 release of “Hard Believer“. The San Jose, California native started playing guitar at age ten with dreams of being a blues superstar like his idols John lee Hooker, Albert King and Buddy Guy. He played in various bands along the way including the Warner Brothers’ band, The Dynatones. He then formed the Tommy Castro Band, which in 1995 was selected to be the House band for three seasons of NBCs “Comedy Showcase“, which followed that network’s “Saturday Night Live“. That band released their first album on Blind Pig Records also in 1995.
Tommy has received Ten Blues Music Awards including the B.B. King Entertainer of The Year in 2023. For this album, Tommy mixes new originals with some unexpected covers. Kid Andersen produced the album and plays bass, piano, organ, and upright bass on various tracks. Tommy on guitar, resonator guitar, and vocals leads his main band members including Mike Emerson on keyboards, Randy McDonald on bass and provides vocals on “Everywhere I Go”, with Bowen Brown on drums. Many guests who will be elaborated as we work through the album’s songs are also on board.
Mike Rinta on trombone and Jack Sanford on baritone sax guest on the opening original track, “Can’t Catch a Break”, with Tommy noting that “bad luck and trouble is the story of my life” and “if love was water, my well has run dry”. Johnny Nolan’s 1956 “The Way You Do” follows with Rick Estrin guesting on harmonica and Tommy letting his guitar rock out. Johnny “Nitro” Newman’s “One More Night” is next. Nitro was another California musician that was hot on the California scene in the 1970’s and 1980’s and was also a member of The Dynatones. On this song, Tommy plays a 1966 black Fender Stratocaster that was owned by Johnny Nitro.
He returns to an original, “Crazy Woman Blues” and says she might be “downright insane” and notes he is “a fool for misery and a sucker for pain but just cannot have a woman that is dangerous as a runaway train”. A cover of Rick Cain’s “Woke Up and Smelled the Coffee” has Endre Tarczy guest on piano. That is followed by a cover of Gary Michael Duke and Joe New’s “Keep Your Dog Inside” with Deanna Bogart sharing vocals with Tommy and some rollicking piano from Mike Emerson.
Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s 1983 “She Moves Me” is the next cover with Jack Sanford again guesting on baritone sax and Deanna Bogart on tenor sax with Lisa Leuschner Andersen adding vocals. Another original “Ain’t Worth the Headache” features June Core on drums and Billy Branch on harmonica as Tommy says, “I will be moving on, you want me to stay, but I would rather be alone”. Ray Charles’ 1955 “A Fool for You” was Ray’s second number one hit on the R&B charts. Chris Cain guests on piano. Tommy pulls out the slide guitar for Ron Thompson’s 1987 song. “Freight Train (Let Me Ride)” and really lets it rip. Jim Pugh joins on piano for the song.
Tommy picks up a rocking beat on Randy McDonald’s 2003 “Everywhere I Go” and keeps the slide guitar burning up the frets. Hank Penny and Ruth Hall’s song “Bloodshot Eyes” reached No. 4 on the 1950 country chart and finished at No. 18 for the year. Deanna Bogart plays tenor sax on the song. Rick Estrin guests once again on harmonica on Eddie Taylor’s “Stroll Out West”. The album concludes with Jim Pugh guesting on organ on Brownie McGhee’s 1969 “Hole in the Wall”, which was recorded by Magic Slim.
Tommy says this album is the deeper blues side of me. I know with these songs; I am at my most authentic”. The album is definitely a return to the roots of his musical career and is delivered with a constant high energy as might be expected from the songs he selected for the album.