Last year, four of the world’s top blues guitarists gathered at Louisiana’s famed Dockside Studios to lay down tracks for this collaborative effort between Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia – affectionately dubbed Blood Brothers. While those two wrote the songs and sourced members from each’s band for this new sextet, guitarists, and co-producers Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith provided the guidance and even added their respective axes to a few tunes. The Blood Brothers toured last summer and fall to great reviews, playing from each’s repertoire and doing lots of southern rock covers, heavily weighted toward The Allman Brothers and that enduring twin guitar (slide and lead) sound. Having witnessed one such show, as terrific as it was, it caused great anticipation for their own material.
Now we have arrived. It’s not often when two leading artists of a genre combine forces, but Zito has produced the last few Castiglia albums and the two have cemented exceptional chemistry over the last few years. The band draws heavily from Zito’s touring unit in the formation of the band with Lewis Stephens (piano/organ), Doug Byrkit (bass), and Matt Johnson (drums) while Ephraim Lowell (drums) hails from Castiglia’s. Bonamassa is featured on “A Thousand Heartaches” and various musicians, including a five-piece horn section and two background vocalists, contributed to the session. Zito wrote or co-wrote four of these eleven with Castiglia penning the aforementioned Bonamassa guest tune. They cover two Fred James tunes, one each from John Hiatt and Tinsley Ellis, among the eleven.
Kicking it off, the two sing in unison on Zito’s “Hey Sweet Mama,” with background vocalists and horns producing a huge wall of sound on a tune that reflects the St. Louis-bred Zito’s Chuck Berry roots. Zito’s standout “In My Soul,” was inspired when he first learned of his wife’s cancer diagnosis. Thus, all the nuances of Zito’s soulful vocals are on display with Castiglia and the backgrounds adding a gospel element. As they do throughout, the two exchange cutting guitar licks that are succinct statements, not overindulgent exercises. The other two Zito originals are the stomping, rave-up “No Good Woman” and the instrumental rocker, co-written with Smith, the Allman-esque “Hill Country Jam,” reflective of much of what was heard in their live show last Fall.
Castiglia’s “A Thousand Heartaches” is the requisite change-of-pace ballad, self-described as modeled on the kind of tune like “Bell Bottom Blues” or Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight,” essentially about taking the high road in an unrequited love situation. Together with Zito’s “In My Soul,” these two display the strongest songcraft on the album. Another strong entry is Ellis’ “Tooth Nail,” one that quickly became a favorite for Castiglia, a born-and-raised Florida southern rocker, sharing similar lineage with the Atlanta, GA based Ellis. Zito delivers an incendiary slide solo, Ellis style. In turn, Zito turned to one his favorites, JJ Cale, in the closing “One Step Ahead of the Blues.” The other four might be standouts on albums from other artists but pale in comparison to the tunes already mentioned, excepting their filthy, stomping, revved-up take on Hiatt’s “My Business” and the slow, simmering guitar work out on Fred James/Berry Hill’s “You’re Gonna Burn.”
Packed with fire, inspiration, and a palpable tight bond between the two principals, this is blues rock with some strong songs. Yet, because the Zito and Castiglia originals outshine so many of the others, more original material could have made an already strong album that much stronger.
