BLUES BARBECUE – A Smoking Shade of Loud

Blues BBQ at Music Haven, Friday, August 16 at Music Haven

Guitar solos are fine and fun, fireworks flowing over the frets. But behind the flash, the best bands stack rocking rhythm guitars between the hot leads and big beats , the chord chops that spur the solos and bridge muscle to melody.

Blood Brothers, from left: Lewis Stephens, keyboards; Mike Zito, guitar and vocals; Matt Johnson, drums; Doug Byrkit, bass; Albert Castiglia, guitar and vocals; Ephraim Lowell, drums

So it was Friday at Music Haven’s Blues BBQ, with three bands building their music on the unassuming but relentless drive of rhythm guitars. First: the primal acoustic duo Piedmont Bluz, then the Berkshire blues-rock blast of Misty Blues, then last – and world-class best – Blood Brothers starring (lead AND rhythm) guitarists Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia.

Valerie Turner, Benedict Turner

Guitarist (lead and rhythm) Valerie Turner and harmonica and percussion player/husband Benedict represented both the lilting Piedmont style and harder-edged Delta approach, instructing more than entertaining at first. They started at five p.m. as food service also began, wafting smoky aroma waves drawing the hungry into lines at the food truck and concession stand.

Valerie instructively demonstrated “alternate-bass” Piedmont finger-picking; thumbing down on the top two (lower-pitched) strings in syncopation, upward-plucking the melody. Benedict’s rhythmic bones-playing also also juiced this low-key style, especially in their opening run of “Buck Dance Three Ways” and “One Black Rat.” Robert Johnson’s “Dust My Broom” marked their turning point, geographically and stylistically, from east coast Piedmont to the Delta. But shifting from (wood) acoustic guitar to (metal) slide dobro as Benedict switched to brush-drumming on washboard really underlined this shift.

An even more profound musical mutation followed, from the close-mic’ed guitar-and-percussion intimacy of Piedmont Bluz to the plugged-in power of Misty Blues, the powerhouse sextet behind singer Gina Coleman; a powerhouse up front.

Misty Blues; from left: Ben Kohn, keyboards; Diego Mongue, guitar (later, bass and drums); Bill Patriquin, bass (later, trumpet); Aaron, Dean, alto saxophone; Rob Tatten, drums; Gina Coleman, vocals (and later, guitar); Seth Fleischmann, guitar

Behind her rocked a riff-blasting band, guitarists Seth Fleishchmann and Diego Mongue; her son, the latter, emerging as the band’s secret weapon. Fleischmann got most of the solos, except when Aaron Dean breathed fierce fire through his alto sax. So Mongue’s rhythm guitar, that’s what I’m talking about. He Zappa’ed a few solos himself, but mostly he did what good rhythm guitarists do; push, pull and pump the beat. He also took over the bass when Bill Patriquin switched to trumpet, and drums later in the set, alongside Rob Tatten. Ben Kohn’s keyboards also fit mostly in the middle.

Gina Coleman

Diego Mongue

Coleman dynamo’ed the whole thing, singing from iron throat and deep soul, most persuasively in the rollicking up-and-down “Roller Coaster Man,” her personal testaments “When My Number Is Called” and “That’s My Cross,” the sizzling “The Upper Hand” and a heartfelt Odessa tribute. She briefly played a cigar-box guitar – not that Mongue and Fleischmann needed the help – but otherwise almost melted the mic.

Mike Zito, Albert Castiglia

Two mics and two guitars awaited Blood Brothers Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia for their headline set; also two drum kits of Matt Johnson and Ephraim Lowell; Lewis Stephens sat at the two-Korg rig Ben Kohn played with Misty Blues and Doug Byrkit plugged in his bass. Prophetically, this was the configuration of the original Allman Brothers Band.

Mike Zito

They mostly mirrored their chart-topping “Blood Brothers” studio album (2023) and its “Live In Canada” echo (released later last year), plus selections from their individual albums eating up the blues charts. And they burned, burned, burned from note one.

Albert Castiglia

Their mid-tempo opener “Hey Sweet Mama” grooved in a confident overdrive cruise, Allman Brothers-y swing that set the stage for a full menu of electric shuffles that followed. Up front, Zito and Castiglia seamlessly swapped roles, solo and support, though they sometimes teamed up in harmony – different notes in the same place – to form that patented Allmans chord blend that uncannily echoed saxophones as the overtones soared.

The effect felt thrilling, happily relentless, masters exalted together in their work-that-felt-like-play. Individually-crafted tunes got the same gleeful unanimous uplift as the duo-album highlights: Zito giving a big-ballad waltz feel of devotion and anguish to his “Forever My Love” mourning departed wife Laura. Castiglia riffed on “Layla” and “uncle” Frank Sinatra to launch “Nitty Gritty,” spiced by a tasty organ solo after both Zito and Castiglia took hot runs at it. Castiglia dedicated “Nitty Gritty” to Schenectady drag-racer Cha-Cha Muldowney. Later he noted how Joe Bonamassa dubbed him the “Sensitive Guido” before launching the similarly poignant “A Thousand Headaches.” The duo could be called Two Paisans Punch Up the Blues; But I digress.

Not everything was fun and games: Zito’s “Forever My Love” and “Life Is Hard” (another solo album selection) told tales of trouble, and Castiglia’s read on “Bag Me, Tag Me, Take Me Away” put a big-guitars spin on fatalistic words.

These star-turns were more the exception than the rule, anyway. This band is about unity, writ large and loud; and they played a master class in riffs welded tight into a blues-rock new-math of one-plus-one equals about nine, and seven guys grow one pair of wings to soar high. Even without a cooking rhythm section, Zito and Castiglia could have rocked the place since their tight lead-and-rhythm guitars riffing packed such a punch. Poignance or pain, too.

After “Hard,” things got easier with the stretched-out shuffle “Gone To Texas” taking everybody on a very Allmans road-trip, complete with Duane-and-Dickie style harmony-guitar scale fragments. At times it echoed “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and “Heat Wave” (Martha & the Vandellas).

Then, after proving themselves the best Allman Brothers Band on the road, they went crazy as Crazy Horse.

Like everything else they played, the Neil Young/Frank Sampedro “Rockin’ In the Free World” hit in a joyous roar, a powerfully cohesive explosion that – flowing out in loud waves – pulled people in, happy. Afterward, Castiglia gratefully praised the crowd as crazy, delightedly adding “You’ve got soul!” Right, and he and Zito found, celebrated and amplified it Friday.