Long
known as one of Blues Music's most prolific “road-warriors,”
Albert Castiglia (pronounced cas-STEEL-ya) is now bringing his road
show to the Kenlake Hot August Blues Festival, at Aurora, Kentucky,
Friday evening, August 24th.
Albert Castiglia’s history is as colorful as his home
town of Miami, Florida. He got a big break after meeting Chicago
Blues Legend Junior Wells in 1996, and became Junior’s lead guitar
player before Wells died in 1998. After Wells passed, he toured with
Atlanta based Blues vocalist, Sandra Hall.
Returning to South Florida after launching his solo
career releasing his first CD, Burn (2002), a self-release,
collaborating with his long time friend, Graham Wood Drout. Drout’s
songs became the perfect vehicle for Castiglia’s soulful vocals. In
2006, he released A Stone’s Throw, his second album and first
release for Blues Leaf Record. Castiglia and Drout also released a
live CD together, titled Bittersweet Sessions, in 2005.His 2008 CD,
These are the Days contained five original Castiglia songs, including
a tribute to his mentor Junior Wells, “Godfather of the Blues.”
The cover songs from These are the Days paid tribute to a wide range
of styles and artists. These are the Days earned him a Blues Music
Award nomination for “Song of the Year” for his original, “Bad
Year Blues.” Castiglia was nominated again by the Illinois Blues
Blast Awards and walked away a winner for “Song of the Year” for
“Bad Year Blues,” as well as being nominated for the “Sean
Costello Rising Star Award.”
Up
All Night
is an apt title for Albert Castiglia’s seventh album: nobody sleeps
when this man is in town. After 27 years of house-rocking studio
albums and smack-in-the-mouth live shows, the Florida bandleader is
the acknowledged master of red-raw, sweat-and-hair blues that gives
it to you straight. Now, the visceral riffs and bruised soul of Up
All Night make everything else sound like a lullaby. “I’d
describe the musical vibe of this new album,” says Castiglia
simply, “as heavy.”
Released in 2017 on Ruf Records, Up All Night finds
Castiglia in a creative swagger after last year’s acclaimed Big
Dog. What wasn’t broke then hasn’t been fixed now, with the
bluesman once again recording at Dockside Studios, Louisiana, and
capturing a warts-and-all mix alongside producer Mike Zito. “I
figured since the Big Dog session went so well there, why change
studios?” he reasons. “I’ll probably record there for the rest
of my life.”
Dockside might be home-turf, but any notion of a comfort
zone was dispelled by an edgy new lineup who pushed their bandleader
to the wire. “Putting my new band together was a pivotal moment and
this recent incarnation has really upped my game,” says Castiglia.
“My drummer, Brian Menendez, is very dynamic and gives me that
extra spark. He’s along the lines of a Ginger Baker or Mitch
Mitchell. Jimmy Pritchard is my bass player and he’s solid as a
rock. His tone is fat and he’s right on time. When I hear him, I
think of Bill Wyman or Calvin ‘Fuzz’ Jones. It’s a power trio
with no boundaries or restrictions. It’s a pretty amazing sound to
me and it’s reflective in Up All Night.”
Up All Night is what happens when fist-tight chemistry
meets a songwriter firing on all cylinders. Flying out of the blocks
and bottling ten songs on the first day, Castiglia shook the Dockside
walls with the most powerful songs of his career. There’s the
stinging Hoodoo On Me. The strutting garage-band vibe and
scream-it-back chorus of Three Legged Dog. The punchy
call-and-response bar-room brawler that is Knocked Down Loaded. “That
song was written with my frequent collaborator, Graham Wood Drout,”
says Castiglia, “and it brings me back to when I was a young
musician and felt like I was ten feet tall and bulletproof.”
Now, Blues fans are looking forward to this road warrior
bringing his road-tested rocking blues to Kenlake's Hot August Blues
Festival!
The Kenlake Hot August Blues Festival is set for
Thursday through Saturday, August 23-25 at Kenlake State Park in
Aurora, Kentucky. Discount tickets are available HERE!
Charities which will benefit from this year's Hot August
Blues Festival include The Shriners, who will be operating festival
shuttles with all tips and proceeds going to the Shriners' Childrens'
Hospitals, and the Knights of Columbus.
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