(TEANECK, NJ) -- Tommy Castro and The Painkillers will celebrate the release of Stompin' Ground on Saturday, April 7 at Debonair Music Hall in Teaneck. On the band's latest album, Castro (a native of San Jose, CA) opens windows both into his past and his always-evolving musical future. The show begins at 8:00pm. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.
Produced by Castro and guitar wunderkind Kid Andersen and recorded at Andersen's legendary Greaseland Studio in San Jose, Stompin' Ground finds Castro letting loose on a set of 12 tracks featuring seven originals and new versions of songs he learned and played as a young up-and-comer. He is simultaneously looking back with autobiographical originals and cover songs that inspired him, while forging a forward trail with modern lyrics atop blistering blues-rock.
Castro's musical roots run deep. As he unleashes his high-energy music to fans all over the world, he is inspired by the sounds he absorbed while coming of age on the rough and tumble side of San Jose, California. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, this was Castro's home turf - his stomping ground. It was a place where the street-tough Mexican Americans and the counter-culture hippies came together to drink, smoke, laugh, party and listen to tunes - the hippies with their blues and rock, the Mexicans with their soul music. Mixing the blues-rock he loved and the soul music he heard blasting out from the lowriders cruising the streets, along with the socially conscious message songs of the day, Tommy's own sound was born. He honed his guitar playing to a razor's edge on the city's competitive bar scene, where he learned how to capture an audience with his intensely passionate vocals, stellar musicianship and dynamic performances. Almost every major rock and soul act, from Ike & Tina Turner to Janis Joplin to Elvin Bishop and Taj Mahal toured through the area, and Castro was at almost every show. He saw John Lee Hooker, Albert King and Buddy Guy & Junior Wells at the same local blues bar, JJ's, where he often jammed, dreaming of one day busting out.
Castro began playing in a variety of Bay Area blues and soul bands in his early 20s. He joined Warner Brothers' artists The Dynatones in the late 1980s, gigging all over the country. After forming the first Tommy Castro Band in 1991, Castro released a series of critically acclaimed CDs for Blind Pig, Telarc and 33rd Street Records, as well as one on his own Heart And Soul label. He signed with Alligator Records in 2009, releasing Hard Believer to massive acclaim.
In 2012 Castro formed The Painkillers, creating a lean, mean four-piece lineup, capable of delivering soul-shaking, muscular music. The band released The Devil You Know in 2014 and Method to My Madness in 2015. Castro had stripped his music down to its raw essence with the new, smaller band, sounding bigger than ever.
With months of tour dates across the U.S. and Europe, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers will be bringing the songs from their new album directly to their fans. No Depression says, "Castro plays gritty, string bending blues like a runaway soul train…a glorious blend that rocks the soul and lifts the spirits." Blues Revue simply says, "Tommy Castro can do no wrong." With Stompin' Ground, he is clearly, once again, doing everything right.
Debonair Music Hall is located at 1409 Queen Anne Rd. in Teaneck, New Jersey.
PHOTO BY PEGGY DEROSE
