Albert Castiglia

Blues guitarist Albert Castiglia entered the world in New York on August 12, 1969. His family relocated to Miami five years afterward, and there he first picked up the guitar. Local performances began for him at age 12 and continued without interruption through his high-school years. Once college ended, he took a position as a social service investigator yet kept performing across South Florida on nights and weekends. He entered Miami Blues Authority in 1990 and remained the ensemble’s lead guitarist and vocalist for more than seven years. An audition in 1997 with Chicago blues harp legend Junior Wells secured Castiglia the permanent guitar chair in Wells’ Hoodoo Man’s Band. After Junior’s passing in 1998 the group persisted long enough to serve as opening act for blues belter Sandra Hall. Castiglia started composing original songs in 2001 alongside Graham Drout, guitarist and vocalist of the Miami-based band Iko Iko. Under Drout’s guidance he issued his first album, Burn, in 2002; four years later Blues Leaf Records released A Stone’s Throw. He remained with that label another six years, delivering These Are the Days in 2008, Keepin On in 2010, and Living the Dream in 2012. The move to Ruf Records came in 2014 with the album Solid Ground. A live recording appeared in 2015, succeeded the next year by the studio effort Big Dog, which reached number 11 on the Billboard Blues Albums chart. Twelve months afterward he returned with Up All Night, produced by Mike Zito. The full-length Masterpiece arrived in 2019 and climbed to number two on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart.