Artist: Tommy Castro
Genre(s):
Blues
Discography:
Gratitude
Year: 2003
Tracks: 12
Guilty of Love
Year:
Tracks: 11
According to all the bid and hoopla and hoopla, Tommy Castro is pegged as the following large star of the vapors. Long a favourite among Bay Area music fans, Castro -- in the space of iI record album releases -- has taken his music around the human race and biz again with a practice bundling of congratulations from critics and old-time megrims musicians alike. His music is a combination of soul-inflected bikers with the casual slow blue devils or ruffle thrown into the amalgamate to keep it reliable. His vocals are laid-back and always a hair behind the thump, small-arm his scorching guitar tone is Stevie Ray Stratocaster-approved. Crossover success does not seem out of the question.
Born and raised in San Jose, CA, Castro started playing guitar at the tender eld of ten-spot. Initially divine by Mike Bloomfield, Eric Clapton, and Elvin Bishop, he started the inevitable travel into the roots of his heroes and observed and cursorily became enamored of B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and Freddie King. His outspoken styling came from ceaseless hearing to Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, and Otis Redding. After playing with numerous Bay Area groups honing his chops, he landed a gig playing guitar for the San Francisco band the Dynatones, world Health Organization were then signed to Warner Brothers. The biennial stint augured good for Castro, playing to the biggest crowds he had seen up to that point and backup artists as various as Carla Thomas and Albert King.
Returning to San Francisco, Castro formed his own grouping and in 1993 released his first self-generated record album, No Foolin', on the dime-sized Saloon tag. That like class as well sawing machine him taking the Bay Area Music Award for Best Club Band, an honor he duplicated the following year. Working as the house set on NBC's Comedy Showcase, public exposure after Saturday Night Live, only boosted his visibility and call value. In 1997, he won Bammies for Outstanding Blues Musician and for Outstanding Blues Album for his debut sacking on Blind Pig Records, Exception to the Rule. Also in 1997 Castro and his band began a three-year stint working as the house band on NBC's Funniness Showcase, which airy later Sat Night Live.
Live at the Fillmore was released in early 2000, and with everyone from manufacture insiders to B.B. King singing his praises, Castro appeared to be headed for larger and better things. It was non to be, nonetheless, as in 2001 he left Blind Pig Records and recorded Guilty of Love for the small 33rd Street label. Blind Pig closed the books on their association with Castro in 2002 by releasing the calling retrospective The Essential Tommy Castro. Gratitude appeared from Heart and Soul in 2003, followed by Triple Trouble (with Jimmy Hall and Lloyd Jones) later that same year from Telarc. 2005 saw Castro return to the Blind Pig label for the sacking of Soul Shaker, followed by Pain pill in 2007.
