While looking for a blues jam to play on Thursday here in Vegas and finding none. I took a chance and went to check out a place that I had heard there was blues being featured every Thursday night. I was blown away when I walked into this show room and found Tommy Castro and his band just finishing up their first song of the night. Lucky for me they were just getting started playing from about 8-11 with about 40 minute break between two sets. Tommys great, but of course it was the drummer, Chris Sandoval that I enjoyed watching and listening to. He plays for the groove and keeps the fills to a minimum-a la Al Jackson, Jr. A blues drummer after my own heart. His double shuffle is dead on and he plays a great train beat. During the break between sets I got a chance to talk to Chris about his snare drum, among other things. The snare sounded great and I found out it was an older 6 1/2" Pearl free floating shell that he had found in a music store. Chris brought it back to life by drilling it for Ludwig lugs and using a Pearl die-cast rim on the batter side. I asked if they were going to do their song "My Older Sisters Radio" off their new album. Chris said they would and later Tommy intro'd it by giving Bill Wax from XM Radio credit for playing and pluging it on Bluesville channel 74 on the satellite. If you haven't seen this band in concert you need to. I think they maybe coming to Chan's in June. Check them out.
