A Review of the Tommy Castro Band Live at the Western Maryland Blues Fest

The Tommy Castro Band was Saturday's headliner at the 15^th Annual Western Maryland Blues Fest in Hagerstown, Maryland. The band deserved to headline winning the 2010 Blues Music Awards for Blues Band of the Year, BB King Entertainer of the Year, Contemporary Blues Artist of the Year, and Contemporary Blues Album of the Year for their latest release "Hard Believer." A steady rain fell before the Tommy Castro Band took the stage. Blues fest fans watched Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue perform on the other stage or staked out their seats in the rain while waiting for Tommy and his band.

Tommy Castro and his band did not let the wet weather dampen their spirits and energy as the band performed their ninety minute set at the festival. Highlights performed off "Hard Believer" included a cover of Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody" which had been rearranged into a contemporary blues song, complete with horns and harmonizing backup vocals. The band also performed "Make it Back to Memphis" of that album. Other highlights included "Wake up Call" off of the 2005 album Soul Shaker, which can be seen on youtube here, and "Nasty Habits" off of the album Exception to the Rule released in 1996. The band did a great cover of James Brown's "Sex Machine." Video of Tommy Castro and the band performing that song at the festival can be found here on youtube. However, the biggest highlight of the evening for me had to be their cover of John Lee Hooker's "Serves Me Right to Suffer" where Tommy Castro took his guitar playing out into the crowd. The close up photo of Tommy Castro was taken with my cell phone with no zoom. Tommy Castro was literally playing right in front of me for part of that song.

This was the second time I had the pleasure of experiencing Tommy Castro live, the first time Tommy was playing support to the legendary BB King. This time Tommy Castro was headlining. The band did an excellent job of living up to their headlining billing and the Tommy Castro Band is definatly a band which has paid their dues along the way.

Sources:

My own experience

Amazon.com for album release dates

Tommycastro.com for albums songs were on

Sex Machine on YouTube

Wake Up Call on YouTube