Video Interview - Albert Castiglia - South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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BY DEBORAH RAMÍREZ |  South Florida Sun-Sentinel
    March 26, 2008

As a bluesman, Albert Castiglia spreads more joy than he ever did as a social worker. He is reminded of this every time he sings about bad love, hard times and overcoming adversity — and watches the audience's reaction.

Diners stop eating and conversations end. Fans gather around the band area and dancers start to boogie. The crowd responds to his jokes and the love fest continues until the wee hours.
Albert will play Saturday night at The Back Room

"I make people happier playing the blues than I did handing out welfare checks," said Castiglia on a recent Saturday night at the Downtowner in Fort Lauderdale.

The 38-year-old blues-rock guitarist and singer was a caseworker when he first heard the calling to become a full-time musician.

That happened on New Year's Eve 1996 when Castiglia, then 26, got a chance to play with Chicago blues legend Junior Wells, one of Muddy Waters' original harmonica players. The moment sealed his fate.

Today Castiglia is about to release his fourth CD, These are the Days, as he struggles to take his music to a wider audience.

Already he's developed a following on South Florida's blues-rock circuit.

"I want to expand and get my music out to more people," said Castiglia, who lives in Wilton Manors with his wife, Michelle. "The money will come, but I think it's more important to touch people."

The blues first touched Castiglia as a shy teenager who preferred playing the guitar to socializing with friends. Eric Clapton's Just One Night turned him on to the blues and led him to a new idol: Muddy Waters.

"I don't know why a white kid from a middle-class family would feel a connection to the blues, but I did," said Castiglia, who grew up in Coral Gables, the son of an Italian-American banker and a Cuban philanthropist mother. "I was a loner, so maybe that's why I liked the blues so much, because the message is about rising up from your loneliness."

Throughout the '90s, Castiglia played with a local band while he worked for the then-Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. His life changed after meeting Gloria Pierce, a part-time music promoter from Chicago.

"Back then, most musicians here sounded the same. But Albert was different," Pierce said. "There was a real quality in the way he played."

Pierce was so impressed that she called Wells, an old friend, and asked that he allow Castiglia to sit in with his band during a 1996 New Year's Eve show in Delray Beach. A nervous Castiglia waited outside the club as Wells arrived that night, wearing his trademark derby hat.

"I said, 'Hi, Mr. Wells, I'm Albert and I just want you to know that you have been a big inspiration to me,'" Castiglia recalled. "And he said, 'Don't call me Mister...'"

Castiglia played three songs that night, and in February 1997 Wells invited him on a weeklong tour. A month later, when a spot opened in the band, Castiglia said goodbye to social work and moved to Chicago to become Wells' lead guitarist.

After Wells died in January 1998, Castiglia stayed in Chicago as a backup musician until 2001. He returned to South Florida to write songs, record and form his own band.

Today, he credits his Memphis-born mentor with teaching him to bond with an audience.

"Junior had this way of making his audience feel like they knew him," Castiglia said. "His example helped me come out of my shell and become friends with my fans."

Deborah Ramírez is editor of el Sentinel