Tommy Castro & The Painkillers – Closer To The Bone
Tommy Castro & The Painkillers – Closer To The Bone
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital
Label: Alligator Records
Release: 2025
Release date: February 7, 2025
2025 is almost here, so it’s time for me to send you Alligator’s first release of the new year—’Closer To The Bone,’ by one of blues and roots music’s most exciting, popular and enduring artists—Tommy Castro. Backed by his fiery and funky band, The Painkillers, Tommy is famed worldwide as a searing guitarist and ultra-soulful singer. His performing career has lasted over four decades, with 17 albums and thousands of gigs and devoted fans to his credit.
Tommy normally fills his albums with a raucous gumbo of 60s/70s-style R&B, Memphis-tinged soul ballads, tough, danceable, Southern-style rock ‘n’ roll and steaming blues. But for this album, he decided to get back to where his music started. ‘Closer To The Bone’ is Tommy’s first 100% blues album. As he says, “this is a real blues record, the way they would have made them back in the day.” Almost all the tracks were recorded live in the studio, capturing Tommy’s spontaneous performances, under the guidance of award-winning producer and master multi-instrumentalist Christoffer “Kid” Andersen, at his famed home studio, Greaseland USA. Closer To The Bone will be released on February 7, 2025, so please hold your reviews and airplay for that time.
When Tommy decided to return to his roots and cut a full-on blues album, he wanted to pay tribute to some of his key influences, both those who mentored him and those whose records deeply influenced him. He chose songs by modern California blues guitar heroes like Johnny Nitro (One More Night, recorded using Johnny’s prized Stratocaster), Ron Thompson (Freight Train (Let Me Ride)), and Chris Cain (Woke Up And Smelled The Coffee). He reached back to record songs he first heard by Chicago’s Magic Slim (Hole In The Wall) and Eddie Taylor (Stroll Out West), Texas’ Johnny “Guitar” Watson (She Moves Me), California’s Jimmy Nolen (The Way You Do), and Omaha’s Wynonie Harris (Bloodshot Eyes). Of course, Tommy wanted to include his own songs as well, penning the high-energy Can’t Catch A Break, the intense Crazy Woman Blues and the rollicking Latin-flavored Ain’t Worth The Heartache. And Tommy encouraged his longtime bass player, Randy McDonald, to sing his own composition, Everywhere I Go.
Along with The Painkillers (bass ace Randy McDonald, keyboardist extraordinaire Mike Emerson and always-right-in-the-pocket drummer Bowen Brown), Tommy invited a host of friends to contribute to the musical celebration. Among them are harmonica masters Rick Estrin and Billy Branch, sax star Deanna Bogart, keyboard giant Jim Pugh, guitar wizard Chris Cain (on piano!), guest drummer June Core and the voices of the Sons Of The Soul Revivers. And producer Kid Andersen sat in on a host of instruments. The result is a passionate, hard-hitting real-deal blues record that reveals the depth of Tommy Castro’s deep love of the blues.
Website: https://www.tommycastro.com/
Tracks:
01. Can’t Catch A Break 3:53 (Tommy Castro & Christoffer Andersen, Tommy Castro Music admin. by Eyeball Music/Eyeball Music, BMI)
02. The Way You Do 3:13 (Jimmy Nolen, Bienstock Publ. Co./Quartet Music, ASCAP)
03. One More Night 3:56 (Johnny “Nitro” Newton, Slamco Music, BMI)
04. Crazy Woman Blues 5:25 (Tommy Castro, Mark Gilbert & Christoffer Andersen, Tommy Castro Music admin. by Eyeball Music/Mark Gilbert Music/Eyeball Music, BMI)
05. Woke Up And Smelled The Coffee 3:05 (Chris Cain, Chris Cain Music admin. by Eyeball Music, BMI)
06. Keep Your Dog Inside 3:48 (Gary Michael Duke & Joe New, M. Duke Music/Smokin Joe Music admin. by BMG Bumblebee, BMI)
07. She Moves Me 3:50 (Johnny Watson & Sam Ling, Booty Ooty Music/Universal Music Careers, BMI)
08. Ain’t Worth The Heartache 3:42 (Tommy Castro, Tommy Castro Music admin. by Eyeball Music, BMI)
09. A Fool For You 3:47 (Ray Charles, Hill & Range Songs, BMI)
10. Freight Train (Let Me Ride) 4:06 (Ron Thompson, Broom Duster Music Publ., ASCAP)
11. Everywhere I Go 3:30 (Randy McDonald, On The Wildside Music, BMI)
12. Bloodshot Eyes 2:54 (Hank Penny & Ruth Hall, Bienstock Publ. Co./Quartet Music, ASCAP)
13. Stroll Out West 3:02 (Eddie Taylor, Taliesin Music admin. by BMG Bumblebee, BMI)
14. Hole In The Wall 2:53 (Brownie McGhee, Next Decade Ent. Inc. obo Julie Music Corp., BMI)
Tommy Castro: Guitar, Resonator Guitar, Vocals
Mike Emerson: Keyboards
Randy McDonald: Bass, Vocals (11)
Bowen Brown: Drums
with:
Christoffer “Kid” Andersen: Bass (1, 3, 8, 10, 13, 14), Piano (1, 11), Fender Bass VI (2), Rhythm Guitar (3, 5, 8, 12, 13, 14), RMI Electra Piano (6), Organ (7, 9, 13), Upright Bass (12)
Deanna Bogart: Tenor Sax (7, 12), Sax solo (7), Vocals (6)
Billy Branch: Harmonica (8)
Chris Cain: Piano (9)
June Core: Drums (1, 8, 9, 12)
Rick Estrin: Harmonica (2, 13)
Scott Jensen: Trumpet (1)
Jim Pugh: Piano (10), Organ (14)
Mike Rinta: Trombone (1)
Jack Sanford: Baritone Sax (1, 7)
Sons Of Soul Revivers: (James Morgan, Dwayne Morgan) Background Vocals (6, 9, 14)
Endre Tarczy: Piano (5, 12)
Lisa Leuschner Andersen: Female Voice (3, 7)