049 - Albert Castiglia - These Are The Days [34:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A1 Artist Spotlight.Com did a phone interview Albert Castiglia about his new CD These are the Days. Listen to the Podcast with the interview and music of Albert Castiglia. His songs “Bad Year Blues” and “Godfather of the Blues” should be on major rotation on any blues station.
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Albert Castiglia (pronounced “ka-STEEL-ya”) was born in 1969 in New York and at age 5 his family moved to Florida. At age 12 his uncle gave him a Bob Dylan songbook and he started playing guitarl by learning those songs. He listened to Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and others of that time. After hearing Clapton’s live record Just One Night Albert started getting into the blues by looking into the original artists whose songs Clapton was perforning. From there he found Muddy Water’s Hard Again and really liked his voice. This really got Albert hooked on the blues. He kept playing guitar even through college and at night he’d do gigs. A friend of his knew Junior Wells and asked Albert if he would like to go to the show. Albert said “sure”. Before the night was over, Albert Castiglia was on stage playing with Junior Wells, his future boss. A few months later he was asked to fill in for a few gigs, then full time. Albert said he learned a lot from Junior Wells like having a stage presence, not just playing the guitar but having a relationship with the audience. Junior Wells also taught him how to lead a band even to the point that some of Albert mannerisms in queuing the band were from Junior Wells.
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After the passing of Junior Wells, Albert Castiglia toured with Sandra Hall then played lead guitar on her record Miss Red Riding Hood. This was produced by our friend Eddy Clearwater who Albert became good friends with. To hear the podcast I did on Eddy Clearwater click here.
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In 2002 Albert took the big leap into a solo career his releases are:
2002 Burn
2003 Springing The Blues Live At The Seawalk
2005 The Bittersweet Sessions – with Graham Drout
2006 A Stone’s Throw
2008 These are the Days
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Albert Castiglia decries These are the Days as a mix of different styles of music, American post war blues, contemporary stuff, and acoustic music. He says his music is a mix of everything he has heard, rock, jazz, and blues. They have all had an influence on him. The first track “Bad Year Blues” caught my attention right away with good slid guitar and piano. The lyrics are great. They are about how everything is going wrong and there is just 12 more months to go. This is a great way to start off the CD with an upbeat song everyone can relate to. Albert doesn’t stop there, the next song is “He’s Got All the Whiskey”, again an upbeat song with a great guitar solo. Albert sings about all these things a person has but they won’t give him any of them. The next song takes us down to something slower and more heartfelt. “Loan Me a Dime” was made famous by Boz Scaggs and Duane Allman. Albert said he does this in his shows but was reluctant to release it on a record since the other version is such a classic. I agree it is a classic that no one can do a better than Duane Allman . Unfortunately Duane Allman’s version of “Loan Me a Dime” does not seem to get much airplay. There may be a large audience out there that doesn’t own it or know this song. I never bought the record for many years because I just didn’t remember the song when in the store or did not want to buy a record for just one song. If you buy this CD and you should, you will get a lot of great songs and this bonus “Loan Me a Dime”. Albert does a really good job on both vocals and guitar. The song is six not thirteen minutes long. Albert jokingly said this is for the people with attention disorder (that’s what I need).
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“Godfather of the Blues” is a song about Albert’s old boss Junior Wells. Even without the lyrics this would still be a great song. Hearing about Junior Wells just makes it better. There is good harp playing Junior Wells would be proud of and good guitar playing creating good old blues. This is one of those songs that I always play a second time. “Celebration” is a nice acoustic song and it is where the title of the CD comes from. “Night Time Is the Right Time” is a Nappy Brown song. Albert does a good job of the song but I’ve heard this song to many times before. “Catfish” is a Bob Dylan song about the pitcher Catfish Hunter who went from the Kansas City Athletics to the New York Yankees. As Bob usually does, he tell a great story, but his version (probably a demo), is too slow and boring (on Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3). Albert is a big sports fan and especially baseball so this is why he chose this song. His version is still slow but much better than Bob’s with good guitar playing and a fuller sound. “Another Bloody Day” is about this crazy war we’re still stuck in. Starting off with a snare drum like you would hear at a military march, Albert goes into some good lyrics about the war and Washington’s bad design making. This is a good rocker that should get people thinking now, if only he could get the right people thinking. “Twister” is kind of a New Orleans sound about a girl that is twisting around on the dance floor with everyone but her husband but, at the end of the night she goes home with him. This is a good up beat fun song you’ll enjoy it. The last song is a blues instrumental “Blues For Evan”. Albert shows off some of his fine slid guitar talent. I really liked this CD but kind of hope Albert puts a few more of his own songs on his next CD. Out of the eleven songs Albert wrote only five. For me those are the strongest songs on the CD, you do get a great version of “Loan Me a Dime” and “He’s Got All the Whiskey”. If you don’t have Nappy Brown’s version of “Night Time Is the Right Time” this is an added bonus as well as the Dylan song that keeps growing on me more and more. Blues Leaf Records should be very happy with this really cool CD. For me, just having “Bad Year Blues”, “Godfather of the Blues”, and “Another Bloody Day” is good enough to buy These are the Days. Everything else is a bonus. If you like the songs in the podcast please buy These are the Days by Albert Castiglia and don’t forget to see him in concert.
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Albert Castiglia Website
Go to buy Albert Castiglia’s These are the Days
Albert Castiglia MySpace
Blues Leaf Records
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Thanks Albert Castiglia for doing the interview.
Thanks also to Rick Lusher, Joe Morabia and Blues Leaf Records.
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