Bad Ass Blues @ The Crest

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Official website: Elvin Bishop, Tommy Castro
Facebook: Elvin Bishop, Tommy Castro Band

Featuring Elvin Bishop & Tommy Castro

Elvin Bishop
On the title track of his new album, Can’t Even Do Wrong Right, being released in July of 2014 on Alligator Records,, the, legendary blues guitarist, songwriter and singer Elvin Bishop spins a tale of a not-too-smart criminal getting caught by his own foolish missteps. The shaggy dog story, fueled by Bishop’s down-home delivery and deep blues slide guitar, is an affirmation of the Chicago Sun-Times’ ebullient praise: “It’s impossible not to like Bishop. He’s always singing something lowbrow and uplifting.” With his buoyant and deceptively loose-sounding ensemble behind him, he’s also playing some of the most spirited and distinctive blues slide guitar today.

“A good time romp…raucous blues with high-energy soloing, mixtures of careening slide and razor-edged bursts, all delivered with unflagging enthusiasm and wit.” –ROLLING STONE

Elvin Bishop has been travelling the Blues road longer than most, and he’s got the stories to prove it – many of which are contained within the songs on this release. Stops along the way include his work as a founding member of the groundbreaking Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early ’60s, recordings with legends such as Clifton Chenier, John Lee Hooker, and The Allman Brothers, and Pop success with his own 1976 smash hit “Fooled Around and Fell In Love”. Bishop’s long and varied career has included plenty of side trips along the way as well, from deep down gutbucket Blues played in smoky South Side Chicago taverns, to raucous roadhouse R&B, to good time Rock & Roll on concert stages and festivals around the world. And at every stage along the way, he’s instilled all of his music with passion, creativity, and a healthy helping of wisdom, wit, and good humor. Elvin was born in Glendale, California, and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was ten years old. His earliest exposure to music came from the family’s radio, where in between “How Much Is That Doggy In The Window” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” young Elvin could sometimes catch classic records of Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. Once he’d got his feet wet, there was no turning back. He quickly acquired his first guitar and on his own began working out the basic outlines of the Blues, R&B and Rock & Roll that had captured his soul. By the time he was preparing for college in the late 1950s, Bishop had earned a National Merit Scholarship that allowed him to go to almost any school he chose – and the only choice on Elvin’s mind was the prestigious University of Chicago, which just happened to be located on Chicago’s South Side, ground zero for much of the urban Blues Elvin had so far been studying only from a distance. He arrived in Chicago in 1959, and before long crossed paths with a fellow student Paul Butterfield. Together, they explored the taverns and Blues joints in the black neighborhoods surrounding the university campus at a time when Blues giants like Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Otis Rush, Magic Sam and Howlin’ Wolf could be found playing in corner bars for a $2 cover charge just about any night of the week.

Tommy Castro
“Funky Southern soul, big city blues and classic rock… silvery guitar licks that simultaneously sound familiar and fresh.” –San Francisco Chronicle

Over the course of his four-decade career Tommy Castro – a six-time Blues Music Award-winner – has played thousands of shows to hundreds of thousands of fans, packing seats and dance floors, always leaving them screaming for more. Hailing from the San Francisco area, Castro, along with his band, The Painkillers (featuring bassist Randy McDonald, keyboardist Michael Emerson and drummer Bowen Brown), play music that is guaranteed to fire up fans and leave critics searching for new words of praise.

Method To My Madness finds Tommy Castro & The Painkillers at their very best. It is an instant career highlight in a lifetime full of them. Tommy Castro & The Painkillers continue to break new ground while simultaneously having an incredible amount of fun.

Born in San Jose, California in 1955, Tommy Castro first picked up a guitar at age 10. He fell under the spell of Eric Clapton, Elvin Bishop, Mike Bloomfield and other blues rock players. As he got older, Castro discovered the blues guitar work of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Elmore James and singers like Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett and James Brown. By his 20s he was playing in a variety of San Francisco-area blues and soul bands. Castro joined Warner Brothers’ artists The Dynatones in the late 1980s before forming The Tommy Castro Band in 1991. He released his debut album in 1996 on Blind Pig and began his decades of relentless, year-round, touring, and picking up new fans everywhere he went.

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