In a career spanning four decades, Tommy Castro has crafted a commendable catalog and built a devout following with his soul-infused music, informed by the blues, R&B, pop, and rock and delivered with conviction. Beloved for his guitar work and vocal style, he has carved his own niche.
Born and raised in San Jose, California, Castro was drawn to music as a child, chaperoned by his like-minded brother, Ray.
“He’s six years older than me, and had a bunch of rock-and-roll 45s,” Castro said. “We shared a bedroom, so I heard them a lot. When I was 10, he got a guitar, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. He formed a garage band in our neighborhood to play teen dances, and I would follow them around.”
The boys’ mother, a hard-working single parent who raised four kids, always supported whatever they pursued, including Tommy’s passion for music.
“Before I had a guitar of my own, every chance I got, I’d pick up Ray’s Chet Atkins Country Gentleman,” Castro recalled. “Being a Beatles guy, he later got a Rickenbacker and a Vox Super Beatle amp.”
As a teen, he caught performances by major rock and soul acts that rolled through – Ike and Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, J. Geils Band, and Tower Of Power, to name a few, and all had an impact. Then, amidst the form’s early-’80s revival, his tastes shifted to blues and the hip local joint, JJ’s Blues, where he caught sets by John Lee Hooker (whose last appearance on a recorded track was for Castro’s 2001 album Guilty of Love), Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Junior Wells.
In 1985, Castro became lead singer and guitarist for a local R&B band called NiteCry, then in ’92 formed the first iteration of the Tommy Castro Band, releasing his first album in ’95. He signed with Alligator Records in 2009 and his first album for the label, Hard Believer, won four Blues Music Awards including Entertainer of the Year (which he repeated in ’23).
In 2012, he assembled the four-piece Tommy Castro & The Painkillers, focused on a high-energy presentation; today, it consists of Mike Emerson on keyboards, longtime bassist Randy McDonald, and drummer Bowen Brown. Closer To The Bone is his seventh album for Alligator, and his first “all blues” disc. Produced by Christoffer “Kid” Andersen at his Greaseland Studios in San Jose, it has 10 covers of tunes written/performed by his heroes, mentors, and friends blending with three originals written or co-written by Castro, as well as one by McDonald.
We talked with Castro while he was enjoying holiday downtime at home, prepping for a return to the road in support of Closer To The Bone, which streets on February 7.
Which of Ray’s records do you remember being especially into?
Whatever the latest thing was. I remember playing Magical Mystery Tour when it had just come out. I was old enough to pay attention to his 45s, which were the hits of the time. I remember getting my first 45 – “The Twist” by Chubby Checker.
Did he teach you to play a few songs on guitar?
Yeah, he showed me songs by The Animals, Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Van Morrison’s band, Them. Eventually, though, I started buying my own albums and they were more blues – Michael Bloomfield, Cream, and stuff like that.
Did you learn to play songs from them?
I did, when I was 14, I heard “I’m Coming Home” by Ten Years After, on the new Woodstock album, and it blew my mind. There was something about that that I couldn’t get enough of; I kept playing it over and over, determined to learn the whole thing. Being a kid who never had lessons or any real teachers, it took a long time, but I pieced it together one hook at time. Once I could play it, I became famous in my neighborhood (laughs).
Do you remember first getting together with others to play?
Yeah, I had a friend who played bass and another who played guitar, and we’d get together at somebody’s house and listen to records and try to figure stuff out. Eventually, a couple drummers came around and we put a band together. We’d play basic stuff like “Mr. Fantasy” for a half an hour (laughs), taking solos and jamming. We’d smoke a little weed and have a beer and just jam, and eventually, we knew a batch of songs. That was a lot of fun.
Did anything come of it?
Not really. I didn’t get serious about playing music until a blues club opened in San Jose and they had jam sessions on Sundays. I’d play whatever I had up my sleeve, a shuffle or a slow song. After a while, it became a scene and I got to know the other musicians. Some of them would hand tapes to me and say, “I like what you’re doing, but you should really be listening to this.” That turned me on to a bunch of great records.
I wound up in NiteCry as a lead singer/second guitar player; René Solis (d. 2010) was the lead player.
Did that make you consider playing as a career?
Well, in the early ’80s, I figured out that there was no job that I liked or wanted other than playing music; it was what I looked forward to every week, and everything else just seemed in the way. I had a long talk with myself about life (laughs) and decided to focus my energy on it. I knew I’d have to move to San Francisco, which had a better scene, so I moved and started getting gigs as a side man. There were a lot of blues happening in San Francisco at the time; Boz Scaggs opened his club, Slim’s, in ’88, and it specialized in blues and roots music. On the radio you were hearing Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and all these blues gigs were available. I joined the Dynatones, which was a touring band and my first professional gig, but I was the guitar player and not the singer. When they were off the road, I’d hire Randy to play bass and we’d do trio gigs with one of the drummers around town. On Monday nights, I’d play with my friend Johnny Nitro and his band. I stayed with the Dynatones for a couple years before starting my own band because I wanted to be the singer and the guitar player.
What was your setup at the time?
I was playing a three-bolt ’70s Strat and a ’65 Super Reverb. I used that until one night when Nitro came to a gig with a black Strat; he kept quite a few guitars in pawn shops because he thought they were safer there than in his apartment – he’d just hold the tickets and get one out when he needed to play it or sell it. He was going to sell the black one, but I after I tried it, I said, “Please sell it to me…” I didn’t have the money, so I told him he’d have to let me buy it on credit (laughs).
What did you like about it?
It felt great in my hands, and it had the tone I was trying to get out of the cream Strat. It had a slightly darker sound from the neck pickup.
What is its neck shape?
A bit thicker, but I really didn’t notice that. I just liked the way it felt and sounded, and it was cool because it had a lot of wear.
Which you’ve added to…
Yeah, well, little did I know that I’d play that guitar (see this month’s “Classics” feature) on my first 10 albums, usually through the Super with no pedals or anything. My secret was running the Volume knob between 8 and 10, Treble in the middle up to about 8, and the Bass on 4. That was a great sound and was my sound for a long time.
What most helped you progress as a guitarist?
Playing a lot, because I’d have to learn songs for whatever kind of gig. That always teaches you a lot. I took very few formal lessons – a few here and there – but they didn’t work for me because they were too much like math. So, most of what I learned was from listening to records and friends. When I decided to take a shot at playing for a living, I practiced a lot, mostly listening to records and creating songs.
You’ve talked about your lack of confidence onstage in the beginning.
Yeah, before I joined the Dynatones, I would stand in one spot and stare at my shoes (laughs). I was focused on playing.
What changed?
Sometimes at a jam, nobody would step up to sing. So I learned a few songs so I could. Also, in the Dynatones, the leader told me, “When you take a solo, I want you to go right up to the front of the stage and play right at the people! Look out and smile.”
I’d never thought of that, but to this day, I do exactly that. I still get nervous, especially at big shows, but I’ve learned to deal with it. Back then, I just really wanted to play music and whatever I had to do, even if I was nervous, scared, uncomfortable, I knew it was part of the deal.
You also pride yourself on making each new record sound unlike one of your previous albums.
Yes, that’s a commitment I’ve made to myself and my fans, and it’s tricky. The new record is another example, even though it’s falling back to traditional blues I’ve played often over the years.
It must help that your influences vary so widely.
Growing up in the Bay Area, we heard a lot about bands like Tower of Power and Sly Stone. In the blues, my influences are a lot of the usuals – B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert King, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Ray Charles – but I like to think my records are as original as can be. The stuff I listened to as I was trying to find my voice and create my own sound was a combination of blues, roots, rock and roll, soul, and a bit of funk.
I do feel like I have a sound, and the reason the new record is different is I’m digging into the blues without trying to be contemporary at all.
How did you choose songs?
Oh, that was fun! I wanted to find some that were not so obvious. I had a list, and I went to [Alligator Records founder] Bruce Iglauer, who is a blues encyclopedia, and another friend, Dick Shurman, who is a blues historian and produced records with Delmark. They’re two guys who know more about the deep catalog of blues music than anybody else I know personally.
They’re straight blues, urban blues, a country-blues and even one by Brownie McGhee.
Yeah, to be honest, I didn’t know “Hole In The Wall” was Brownie McGhee’s song. I got it from Magic Slim, a Chicago guy who, like a lot of Chicago guys, came from Mississippi, where he and his brothers sang in the church. He moved to Chicago and had a career as a guitar player, recorded for Blind Pig, and got to tour the world. He was the most real-deal blues guy I ever met. He’s not a big name like B.B. King or Buddy Guy, and I’m not taking anything away from them. But not everybody knows who guys like Magic Slim are, and that’s another reason I did that song. There’s a million blues songs out there that everybody knows by heart, and there are artists everybody knows. I was trying to find some that I had a personal connection to, like the song by Nitro (“One More Night”), and others by my friends Chris Cain (“Woke Up And Smelled The Coffee”), Ron Thompson (“Freight Train (Let Me Ride)”), and Mike Duke.
How did you decide on Mike’s “Keep Your Dog Inside”?
Mike and I talk a lot and he’s always playing his songs for me. I was happy to pick one of his – the blusiest one he had! As things came together, I was expecting Bruce Iglauer to say, “I don’t think that’s going to fit,” but he loved it! Again, the key is songs by guys you don’t usually hear and the connection for me, like the Chris Cain song. When Chris’ first album came out, I was like, “Man, this is a guy from my neighborhood, making records and touring Europe.” I loved his first album, Late Night City Blues, and the idea of the song; my mother used to tell me, “Wake up and smell the coffee!”
Even though I’ll never play guitar like Chris, it was inspiring that a guy from my hometown could do it for a living, which made me think, “I might have a shot.”
How did the songs come together in the studio?
Well, half of them are exactly as they happened when we tracked the whole band playing together, save for an edit or two. A lot of the solos came right off the tracking sessions – and some surprised me! Like the Johnny “Guitar” Watson song “She Moves Me,” which I played with my fingers, which is not something I do. It captures the vibe and feel of what Johnny would do.
“I Can’t Catch a Break,” has a solo that I didn’t have to re-think, re-cut, or fix. It just came out. When I hear it, again, there things I don’t normally do.
Had you rehearsed it quite a bit?
Not at all, actually. I originally wrote it with a different groove, but Kid and I were thinking it sounded too much like “Ain’t Worth the Heartache.” So when we were doing vocal overdubs, we came up with a new arrangement. Mike, Randy, and Bowen had gone home to Northern California by then, so we called drummer June Core, who plays with Charlie Musselwhite and happens to live in my neighborhood. We worked on the arrangement and played it in one day, then later had the horns come in. The guitar solo came to me in the moment. I love when that happens.
There are songs where I went back and gave more thought to the solos – “Woke Up And Smelled The Coffee” was one.
Which guitar did you use for the slide parts on the song that Randy brought, “Everywhere I Go”?
I used a Silvertone at Kid’s.
Did Randy lobby to get it on the record, or were you into it?
We weren’t sure if Bruce and the Alligator folks were going to be okay with having another member of the band sing, because that isn’t something they usually do, but they acknowledged that the song was really good and that Randy’s been with me for all these years. It’s a good song, and we got a good performance.
Being in Kid’s studio, it makes sense you took advantage to run with some of his guitars.
Yeah, I also used his ES-330 on a “She Moves Me” to get that sound. It worked great.
Which amps do we hear you play most on the album?
Cutting at Kid’s, most of the time he had me playing into a tweed Harvard or Princeton or a Champ – something like that. At home, I had a silverface Princeton that I used to cut some stuff, and my Victory V4 The Duchess pedalboard amp, which has four tubes in the preamp and is amazing. I used that to cut the solos on “Woke Up…” and couldn’t believe how good it sounds. I tweaked it until I got a tone that was realistic, which was easier than messing with a bunch of amps. I did three songs with it.
At the end of “The Way You Do,” you quote Clapton from “All Your Love” on the Bluesbreakers record.
Yeah, but that’s Otis Rush (laughs). I always loved that lick. If I play that song live, I play the whole thing in the middle of my solo. There was a time when you’d hear “All Your Love” at every blues show, but you don’t hear it much anymore.
Which guitars and amps are going on the road with you?
I’ll have the black Strat and a backup or two, and I’m using The Duchess, which weighs about four pounds. Its direct out has a speaker simulator and you can download any speakers you want. It’s amazing and sounds more consistent in every room, so it’s very convenient. I do like having a speaker onstage, so I’m using it to drive one in a 1×12 combo.
The new album is a full-circle story, given the song selection and the return of the black Strat.
A lot of fans have noticed, and everybody’s enjoying it – but mostly me (laughs)!
You’re going back on tour. Where’s your head at these days?
I’m lucky to be here and get to do this. I didn’t expect I was going to have gigs for 35 years and make a living and raise kids and buy houses and all of this stuff just by playing blues guitar. I remain in a state of gratitude about the whole thing. I work hard because I want to be worthy of this gift that’s been laid on me by the universe.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
