Photo: Dragan Tasic
Tommy Castro & The Painkillers To Release ‘Closer To The Bone’ New Album
On Friday, February 7, 2025, Alligator Records will release Closer To The Bone, the new album from award-winning, California-based blues and rock sensation Tommy Castro. Castro is the guitar slinging, soul-singing leader of the telepathically tight and wildly raucous Tommy Castro & The Painkillers. With Closer To The Bone, Castro — the four-time Blues Music Award-winner for the B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year — delivers what he calls, “a record I’ve always wanted to make.” Closer To The Bone is the most unvarnished, straight-ahead blues release of Castro’s career, one that bristles with every ounce of his dynamic energy and raw emotion.
On Closer To The Bone (Castro’s 8th Alligator release), Castro and his Painkillers – bassist Randy McDonald, keyboardist Mike Emerson and drummer Bowen Brown – mix new Castro originals (Ain’t Worth The Heartache, Can’t Catch A Break, Crazy Woman Blues) with songs originally performed by many of Castro’s friends and heroes. Artists and their songs include Johnny Nitro (One More Night, on which Castro plays his treasured 1966 black Fender Stratocaster, a guitar once owned by Nitro himself), Magic Slim (Hole In The Wall), Ron Thompson (Freight Train) and Mike Duke (Keep Your Dog Inside). Castro additionally chose obscure songs by Wynonie Harris (Bloodshot Eyes), Eddie Taylor (Stroll Out West), Jimmy Nolen (The Way You Do) and Johnny “Guitar” Watson (She Moves Me). According to Castro, “These are not the obvious artists people generally cover, and that was most definitely on purpose.”
Of the album’s first single, Woke Up And Smelled The Coffee (a song written by Castro’s Alligator label-mate Chris Cain), Castro says, “I always liked the song. Since it’s been almost 40 years since he recorded it, I thought I would do my own version. People cover B.B. King and Buddy Guy, why not Chris Cain? He’s as relevant an artist as anyone who ever played the blues.”
Watch “Woke Up And Smelled The Coffee”
Castro has released 17 previous albums over the course of his four-decade career as a professional touring musician. Each record has its own individual sound and style, ranging from horn-fueled R&B to piping hot blues and soul to fiery, stripped-down rock ‘n’ roll. With Closer To The Bone, Castro has returned to his roots, delivering what he calls “a real blues record, the way they would have made them back in the day.”
Closer To The Bone was produced by master guitarist and studio wizard Christoffer “Kid” Andersen (producer of over 100 albums), at his now-famous Greaseland Studio in San Jose, California. On song after song, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers deliver one raw, inspired performance after another. Says Castro, “Here, I’m not the contemporary guy, not the rock guy, not the soul guy. This is the deeper blues side of me. I know, with these songs, I am at my most authentic.”
Tommy Castro website
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