Tommy Castro

Tommy Castro is an American guitarist, singer/songwriter, and bandleader. His muscular brand of American roots music indulges electric and jump blues, funky rockers, and soul-drenched ballads. An incendiary lead guitarist and showman, he plays more than 200 dates a year. His first two Blind Pig outings, 1996's No Exceptions and 1997's Can't Keep a Good Man Down, received critical acclaim, prompting world tours. 2001's Guilty of Love charted. 2009's Hard Believer, on Alligator, netted four Blues Music Awards. 2012's raw, wooly, stripped-down The Devil You Know, the first release by Tommy Castro & The Painkillers, spent 23 weeks on the charts. 2017's Stompin' Ground peaked at number two. In 2021, Tommy Castro Presents: A Bluesman Came to Town, a blues concept album co-written with producer Tom Hambridge, debuted at number two at blues albums. Castro returned in 2025 with Closer to the Bone, an exercise in raw, unvarnished blues.