Tommy Castro & the Painkillers will headline The Spire Center in Plymouth
Tommy Castro tries to do something different with every album, and that’s one reason his records have been among the most consistently successful in the blues world. But for his last record, “A Bluesman Came to Town,” Castro really took a chance: crafting the first blues concept album, a 13-song cycle that told a story, tracing the life of a boy who fell in love with the music, learned guitar and hit the road.
The results were heartening, as Castro’s bold idea won plaudits everywhere. All Music called it “a towering achievement,” and Blues Revue magazine declared “Tommy Castro can do no wrong.”
Castro and his quartet will be headlining The Spire Center in Plymouth on Thursday, April 6.
Castro works with Boston hitmaker Tom Hambridge
Castro enlisted former Boston rocker Tom Hambridge to produce the album and help him with some co-writes. While Boston music fans of the 1980s-90s may remember Hambridge from his rock group T.H. and the Wreckage, or his stints in some early versions of Susan Tedeschi’s band, the drummer has gone on to forge a much-decorated career as record producer, especially in the blues genre, where his work for people like Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter and Joe Bonamassa has won numerous Blues Music Awards and two Grammys (for Guy albums in 2011 and 2015). Castro knew Hambridge, and figured he could help shepherd Castro’s 16th album to fruition.
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We caught up with Castro as he was in a two-hour airport layover in Chicago, on his way to start the next leg of this tour in Duluth.
“I’ve been a fan of Tom’s work for a long time,” Castro said. “He’s got quite a thing going, as songwriter, drummer and producer, and we’d talked about doing something together for years. I thought I had a cool idea and a handful of song ideas. I wanted to change course from just recording a batch of songs, and try to tell a story over the course of a whole album. It was a little more challenging, but I’m glad we stuck with it.”
'A Bluesman Came to Town' comes together
The tunes on “A Bluesman Came to Town” are not simply in one style, but cover almost every aspect of the blues. That’s not an accident. Castro’s albums have always stood out for the way they seamlessly feature rock, soul, roadhouse blues, funk and more.
Among the songs on this record, which came out at the end of 2021, “Somewhere” is a swampy roadhouse rocker, while “I Want to Go Back Home” is classic soul, a ballad in the Memphis vein. “Blues Prisoner” is one of those classic blues ballads, accented by a fiery Castro guitar solo. Perhaps most intriguing, “Hustle” works off a funk groove that evokes James Brown, and has a sizzling sax solo from Deanna Bogart, the blues star who is now Castro’s significant other.
“Having an array of different styles is kind of my brand anyway,” Castro noted. “I’ve done that from my first record on. I love rock ‘n’ roll, soul, Memphis soul, straight blues ... all different styles that fall under the blues category. We do what we like, and we’ve always done that. We’re telling this story with my influences from people like James Brown and Chuck Berry front and center. I will say there’s a ballad, “You to Hold Onto,” that is a new type for me to try.”
“I’m such a tough critic of myself, that the first time I listened to this album in sequence, I had my fingers crossed,” Castro said. “Once I heard it top to bottom, I thought, well, this is actually good. While recording, we heard the songs out of context, and didn’t do the order until the end. With this one, we had to sequence the songs with an eye to the chronology of the story, as well as allowing the album to have some flow. By the time we got that part down, I think it really works.”
The obvious question is how much of the tale within the concept album is autobiographical?
“I would say only 20, 25, at most 30% of the songs were based on autobiographical details,” said Castro. “The rest is drawn from people I’ve known, books I’ve read, things I’ve heard. I really wanted it to be a fictional work. I wanted to make it something like a play, and not about me. But, how can I write about a bluesman and not end up with some of it based on me?”
Music fans on social media have probably noted Castro and Bogart’s romance, a pairing of two successful blues artists with bands of their own.
“That song, ‘Hustle,’ we did together during the pandemic, cooped up at home,” Castro said. “I could hear how it should sound in my head and she helped me put it together. We went down to a local studio in Palm Springs and recorded it. We didn’t have any intentions of working together, but it became a natural.”
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“I’d never been involved with another artist like this. She’s a songwriter, bandleader and an amazing force,” Castro said. “Our musical styles are quite different, but there are some similarities, and it is fun to get together and jam. Deanna has a band on the West Coast and a band on the East Coast. We both wanted to keep our bands intact, and neither mine nor hers show any signs of slowing down. We did do one little show at a performing arts center near where we live, just because we wanted to try it.”
With “A Bluesman Came to Town” out about a year-and-a-half now, has Castro begun planning his next album, and what new direction it will be?
What's next for Tommy Castro?
“I have an idea but I can’t tell anyone yet,” he said, laughing. “This last album got us a lot of attention, and a lot better gigs, so we have a bit of momentum going. The next one will be something fresh, something different, but using the same ingredients. I’ve played The Spire Center one time before, but not since 'A Bluesman Came to Town,' so it will be nice to bring that material to the area.”
Along with the Spire Center show, Castro and his band, The Painkillers, will be performing April 7 at the Capital Theater in Concord, New Hampshire.; and at the Katherine Hepburn Center for the Arts on April 8 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
Jeff Beck biography rocks
With the recent death of acclaimed guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck, we finally read a biography we had purchased some time previously. "Jeff Beck, Crazy Fingers" by Annette Carson (Backbeat Books) is a detailed look at the legendary musician's career, penned by a savvy music veteran who was a booking agent during much of his heyday, and has gone on to work in British TV.
Carson is a knowledgeable music fan and her writing deftly captures the spirit and excitement Beck caused when he burst onto the music scene. The only drawback to this book is that it was published in 2001, so you won't learn anything about the last couple of decades of his life. But the tales from his early years ? literally building his own guitars when he and his parents couldn't afford to buy one ? are incredible. Just the details of his 21 months in The Yardbirds are worth the price of the book, as you learn that Beck simply couldn't deal with the rigors of touring, resulting in a nervous breakdown, and later an emergency tonsillectomy.
There's a great anecdote about how he almost became a Rolling Stone. Portraying just how revolutionary some of Beck's innovations were, and how his contemporaries viewed him with awe, while his personal life was simultaneously often messy, is a strong point of Carson's book.
There are also detailed descriptions of the many guitars Beck used, and explanations of some of the singular techniques he developed in playing them. Guitar nerds will love this book.
A back cover blurb declares the book is "the definitive, unauthorized biography of Jeff Beck," and when it was written it surely was. There are later chapters waiting to be written, but for casual fans or younger readers who want to know why everyone revered him, this biography is a fascinating study and vastly entertaining. Check backbeatbooks.com or other online vendors who have the book for various prices.
Upcoming gigs: Aldous Collins, Norwell's Totem and Draw the Line
THURSDAY: South Shore musical phenomenon Aldous Collins plays at The Spire Center, but in just a duo with Brian Hitchings. Band of Brothers ? an Allman Brothers Band tribute ? at Soundcheck Studios. Dublin post-punk rockers The Murder Capital at The Sinclair. Al “Year of the Cat” Stewart at City Winery. The jamband quartet Upstate at Brighton Music Hall.
FRIDAY: Jukebox the Ghost rocks Royale. Vapors of Morphine, with Whitman saxman Dana Colley, at The Spire Center. EXTC plays the music of XTC at City Winery. French DJ Wax Tailor at Brighton Music Hall. Les Special, the inventive trio, at Soundcheck Studios with hip-hop’s Lyrics Born opening. Jamaican singer/saxman Masego at The House of Blues. The Church rocks The Sinclair.
SATURDAY: Hometown rockers Totem heat up Inclusion Records in Norwell. John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band at The Narrows Center. Draw the Line has sold out their Soundcheck Studios show. Soul singer Morgan James at City Winery. Dr. Jim’s Mardi Gras party at The C-Note. Popster Elio sings at The Sinclair. The Breakers ? a Tom Petty tribute ? has sold out The Spire Center. Vermont jam-rockers Twiddle at The House of Blues.
SUNDAY: Jake Wesley Rogers ? from "America’s Got Talent" ? at Brighton Music Hall, while Robyn Hitchcock lands at City Winery.
MONDAY: Catch Tennis rocking The House of Blues.
See Tommy Castro & the Painkillers
When: 8 p.m. April 6
Where: The Spire Center, 25? Court St., Plymouth
Tickets: $32.40 to $36
Info: 508-746-4488 or spirecenter.org
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Tommy Castro & the Painkillers to headline Spire Center in Plymouth
