Far from the fiashlit world of misogynist rappers and super-hyped rock bands, there’s a network of restaurants and barrooms across America that offers local heroes the chance to play on a regular basis. In Miami, the history-laden Tobacco Road once a hangout of Al Capone, show cases live music seven nights a week. The Titanic Brewery, in Coral Gables, features classic rock and blues on weekends. Do well there and you’ll move on to other Florida locations: the Rosey Baby Crawfish and Cajun House in Ft. Lauderdale, perhaps, or Orlando’s House of Blues.
On any given Saturday night, you’re likely to find Albert Castiglia working a stage somewhere in the Sunshine State. Though he paid his dues as a sideman in Chicago and toured the world with Junior Wells, the singer guitarist has spent the past five years building a following at Florida venues of varying sizes. “Sports bars are real tough because you have to compete with 20 fiat-screen TVs with the football game on,” he says. “Small restaurants are tough, too, because you have to hold back.” When Castiglia returned to his adopted hometown of Coral Gables five years ago, looking to breakout of the sideman role, he found it was like starting his career all over again. “The fact that you toured and played with some of the heaviest cats in Chicago — and the world, for that matter — means nothing when you break out on your own. You have to prove yourself as a frontman, not a sideman.”
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