Sean Costello

Born and raised in Atlanta, blues sensation Sean Costello received his first guitar on his ninth birthday. Largely self-taught, he started with hard rock before discovering Stevie Ray Vaughan and then Howlin' Wolf. Mentored by local bluesman Felix Reyes, the 14-year-old won the Beale Street Blues Society talent award in 1994. Fellow contestant Susan Tedeschi soon hired him as her lead guitarist, and he remained in her band for several years while also contributing guitar to her 1998 album Just Won't Burn. After departing, Costello formed the Jivebombers with bassist Carl Shankle, keyboardist and harpist Paul Linden, and drummer Terrence Prather, releasing his debut album Call the Cops in 1996. Following extensive touring, he rebuilt the group by bringing in bassist Melvin Zachary to replace Shankle and adding keyboardist Matt Wauchope, then issued Cuttin' In in early 2000. The record earned acclaim within the blues world and brought a W.C. Handy Award nomination for Best New Artist Debut. His third album, Moanin' for Molasses, arrived in 2001 and further established him among the top young blues guitarists. Artemis Records put out the self-titled Sean Costello in 2004, but the label collapsed months afterward, leaving the intended breakthrough without proper promotion. Four years passed before We Can Get Together appeared in 2008. On April 15 of that year, two months after the album's release and one day before his 29th birthday, Costello was discovered dead in an Atlanta hotel room; a toxicology report identified the cause as a combination of drugs that included heroin.