Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

The bar has been placed so high by Albert Castiglia that there is surely little room to wriggle through the space that is left, and when the bar refuses point blank to give way, to be seen as conceding even an inch in today resurgence of the well performed Blues, the only thing you can do is take a sledgehammer to it and rebuild or show it just who is in command with the biggest confident strut and musical stride and make the bar realise it hasn’t seen anything yet.

Albert Castiglia’s ability to heal the soul after it has been bruised and torn by other’s misdeeds and ill intentioned rummages through the ribs of expression, is countered perfectly by the way he himself leaves you breathless; the sweat and the pleasantly alarmed combining to make his latest album one in which you can do nothing else but stay Up All Night and revel in the naked, creative strut.

There are those who shy away from the lights that inhabit the dark, the four in the morning small talk and the smack of realisation that come the dawn they have had no break, there is only a welded join keeping the days apart; Up All Night, catch the day and live life with animalistic urge to breathe every moment as if it is your last. It is a state of instruction that the dynamic musician, the band and the insight of Producer Mike Zito pulls together in a sense of blazing musical fire.

It is the strut in which the music hangs on to, the downbeat Blues not given house time and despite the lyrical comfort which could have dominated the genre at any point during its recording history, there is the thought that leads, that in this form and with Mr. Castiglia’s prowess, that the words are fresh, exciting, brutally honest and without the safety net that so many others require.

In tracks such as Three Legged Dog, Knock Down Loaded, Quit Your Bitching, Woman Don’t Lie and Chase Her Around The House, the safety is very much off, the lyric is unabashed and leads by example, a humble illustration but one meted in true glorious Blues style; no sense of fear, completely adventurous and filled with decades at the helm charm.

Sometimes in life you have to stay Up All Night just to prove you are still alive, still in control and to say that the Sun is very much shining down on the Heavens and all that you see. It is a state of mind exemplified by Albert Castiglia.

Ian D. Hall