Albert Castiglia

I Got Love

Gulf Coast

The searing blues rock guitarist and songwriter Albert Castiglia always leaves it all on the floor, whether it be his ferocious guitar playing, impassioned vocals, or his honest, personal take on what’s happening to him on a personal level. The pandemic years for Castiglia, like for most of us, churned up a sea of emotions that often left us so disoriented, that it was hard to express this myriad of feelings in words, let alone song. On I Got Love Castiglia does just that as well as delivering his customary blistering guitar attack. Castiglia has found success in working with kindred spirit, Mike Zito, who again returns in the producer role, issuing the album on his co-owned Gulf Coast Records. Backing Castiglia are Justine Tompkins (bass and vocals), Ephraim Lowell (drums and vocals), and Lewis Stephens (B3 and piano).

Ten of these eleven tracks are originals. Castiglia says, “…The blues and blues-infused music is rooted in truth. This album is my truth. To ignore the events of the past two years (the covid era) and write about anything else would not be my truth. I went through it all – loss, depression, illness, fear of the unknown…This collection of songs is those who felt like I did.”

Hunkering down once again at Dockside Studio in Maurice, LA, a place that is now home turf for Castiglia, the band fired away in their trademark raw, straight-ahead, no-nonsense approach, that’s been consistent through his studio efforts, Big Dog (2016), Up All Night (2017), and Masterpiece (2019). The latter won the Blues Music Award for Blues Rock Album of the Year. Like that one, this is thematic and already loud before you even consider cranking it up. The album also follows his latest album, the live Wild and Free. This string of work has stamped Castiglia as one of the strongest blues-rockers as attested to by his BMA nomination for Blues Rock Artist of the Year, an award that he and Zito often compete for.

Yes, Castiglia, who cut his teeth as the guitarist in Junior Wells band and later with Sandra Hall, has built a successful solo career with a fire burning at the intersection of blues and rock, with expressive vocals and incendiary fretwork. He kicks off with the title track “I Got Love,” a passionate nod to resilience and survival.  His barely controlled inferno threatens to careen out of control on the funky “Don’t Pray With The Devil” and grows angry on “Burning Bridges,” about the need to cut oneself off from negative people and retreat to a more comforting inner circle. “Sanctuary” flows easier, buoyed by Stephens’ B3, it’s a glowing love song, likely to his wife, Michelle. He rips off piercing lines in the declarative “Double Down” and turns to his slide and Stephen’s rollicking piano on the shuffling, chorus-infused “Long Haul Daddy,” both likely crowd-pleasers for the live shows.

“What’s Wrong With You” has the kind of slashing riffs that speak to Castiglia’s tutelage under the many Chicago blues greats including Melvin Taylor, who authored the only cover tune “Depression Blues.” Other prime Castiglia moments on I Got Love include Melvin Taylor’s “Depression Blues,” which has Castiglia in great vocal form but, for this writer, a bit too much use of the wah-wah pedal. “Freedomland” is a heavy dose of angst wrapped around the social protests of covid’s 2020 summer while “You Don’t Know Hell” puts all the ugliness of the pandemic in one scathing, high octane outcry. He may have saved the best for last with the closer, “Take My Name Out Of Your Mouth,” a slow shuffle, with hair-raising guitar and the indelible bitter chorus – “Before you talk about me, take my name out of your mouth,” reminiscent lyrically of the oft played, Bo Diddley-penned “Before You Accuse Me.”

Castiglia again stays on his high trajectory, solidifying his reputation as one of the best songwriting blues rockers playing today.

• Jim Hynes

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