Grits & Glory
Albert Castiglia
Albert Castiglia’s Grits & Glory is a 2026 blues-rock album built around forceful guitar playing, expressive vocals, and topical songwriting. Released July 31 through Gulf Coast Records, the 11-track, 52-minute set was recorded primarily at Abbey Road Studios with Castiglia’s longtime road-band partners Cliff Moore on bass and Ray Hangen on drums, and produced by David Gross. The title reflects the record’s blend of perseverance and swagger: it is steeped in British-influenced blues, but its lyrical point of view is direct, contemporary, and distinctly American.
Songs such as “In My America,” “Michigan Avenue,” and “Slumlord Billionaire” use blues storytelling to address social inequality, political disillusionment, and everyday struggle, while “I’m Afraid to Fall Asleep” brings mortality into a rolling blues-rock setting. The six-minute “Uncertainty” stretches toward Southern rock, and “When the Coin Came Callin’” adds a looser, funkier groove. Castiglia also broadens the album’s palette with a jazz-leaning version of Mongo Santamaría’s “Afro Blue” and closes with a hard-edged take on the Beatles’ “Yer Blues.” Backed by Hammond organ, piano, Wurlitzer, percussion, and Deborah Michels’s backing vocals, Grits & Glory balances big live-band sound with a raw, reflective intensity.
Grits & Glory
Albert Castiglia
Albert Castiglia’s Grits & Glory is a 2026 blues-rock album built around forceful guitar playing, expressive vocals, and topical songwriting. Released July 31 through Gulf Coast Records, the 11-track, 52-minute set was recorded primarily at Abbey Road Studios with Castiglia’s longtime road-band partners Cliff Moore on bass and Ray Hangen on drums, and produced by David Gross. The title reflects the record’s blend of perseverance and swagger: it is steeped in British-influenced blues, but its lyrical point of view is direct, contemporary, and distinctly American.
Songs such as “In My America,” “Michigan Avenue,” and “Slumlord Billionaire” use blues storytelling to address social inequality, political disillusionment, and everyday struggle, while “I’m Afraid to Fall Asleep” brings mortality into a rolling blues-rock setting. The six-minute “Uncertainty” stretches toward Southern rock, and “When the Coin Came Callin’” adds a looser, funkier groove. Castiglia also broadens the album’s palette with a jazz-leaning version of Mongo Santamaría’s “Afro Blue” and closes with a hard-edged take on the Beatles’ “Yer Blues.” Backed by Hammond organ, piano, Wurlitzer, percussion, and Deborah Michels’s backing vocals, Grits & Glory balances big live-band sound with a raw, reflective intensity.