California-based blues and rock musician Tommy Castro said that his new album, “Closer to the Bone,” is the first real blues album he’s made. Considering that the guitarist, singer, and songwriter has released 16 albums in his award-winning four-decade career, this comes as somewhat of a surprise.

“Closer to the Bone” was released on Feb. 7, and Castro and his band, the Painkillers, are currently on tour supporting the release. They will stop at the Shea Theater Arts Center in Turners Falls on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 8 p.m.

Known for his dynamic live shows, Castro has worked with the Painkillers since 2012. The current lineup — bassist Randy McDonald, keyboardist Mike Emerson, and drummer Bowen Brown — is known for its big sound and high-energy live shows. Castro, who is a four-time Blues Music Award winner for B.B. King Entertainer of the Year, tours heavily, performing about 150 shows a year with the Painkillers.

It was a long journey that led to Castro returning to his roots and making what he calls a full-on blues album, where he could pay tribute to some of his key influences. Unlike his previous recordings, as he points out on this album, he’s “not a rock guy, not a soul guy, just blues.” It’s taken a long time, but “Closer to the Bone” is the straight-ahead blues album that Castro has always wanted to make; it’s just taken him a while to get here.

“We started out playing clubs in San Francisco. We were playing all our favorites blues and soul tunes, you know, keeping the party going,” said Castro, who was calling from a tour stop in Texas and talking about launching his career in the 1990s. “Our influences were traditional blues, but also rock ‘n’ roll, soul music, and other types of music that creep into our sound.”

After playing hundreds of shows, Castro was signed to Blind Pig Records, and then in 2009, he was signed to Alligator Records. “Closer to the Bone” is his seventh release for the esteemed label.

“We are considered a contemporary blues act where we write our own music, and we believe that we have a recognizable sound that is our own, and every couple of years we make a new album, and I try and make it different every time, so as not to bore people,” he said.

“But I always had it in my mind that I wanted to make a straight-ahead blues record, and I knew where I wanted to make it.”

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That location turned out to be Greaseland, the home recording studio of producer and multi-instrumentalist Christoffer “Kid” Andersen in San Jose, California. In addition to the Painkillers, a host of guest musicians, including Andersen and the Sons of the Soul Revivers were brought in to perform on the record.

This album features only three of Castro’s originals, and the rest are covers by a selection of artists, many of whom are not well known but were key influences to the bluesman, and he wanted to pay tribute to them.

“I didn’t see the point in writing many original songs for a record like this, which is paying tribute to a certain kind of blues music that I love,” said Castro. “We were looking for cool off-the-beaten-path songs to cover, and also, I wanted to shed some light on a couple of my friends who have songs; Ron Thompson and Johnny Nitro are from the Bay Area and just aren’t as well known as others. ”

Will Castro and the Painkillers play the entire “Closer to the Bone” album at the show at the Shea?

“No, we’ve been doing this a long time, and we have a lot of friends and fans, so people want us to play songs that they are familiar with,” he said. “We play about five or six songs from this new record, and they are a lot of fun to play. I’m really enjoying it.”

“We have a lot of songs,” he added. “We have everything from stuff you might want to sit and listen to, to stuff you might want to get up and dance to. We will play some of our more popular songs from the past.”

Castro added that the popularity of the blues goes up and down and that now is a very good time for the genre, citing the popularity of artists like Joe Bonamassa and rising stars like Samantha Fish, Kingfish, and others who are drawing attention to blues music.

“Everybody likes the blues, they just don’t know it if they haven’t heard it yet,” he said with a laugh. “It’s is the way the music business is that not everybody gets exposed to everything, but when they do, they love the blues … Like Albert King said, ‘If you don’t dig the blues, you’ve got a hole in your soul.’”

Tickets are $24 in advance, $30 at the door, and are available at sheatheater.org.

Also happening this weekend, on Friday, Feb. 21, Little Lies, the Fleetwood Mac tribute band, will perform at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls. Get your tickets now, as they are running low.

Coming up on March 7, singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega will bring her New Songs and Other Songs tour to the Shea Theater. Vega, best known for songs like ”Luka” and “Tom’s Diner,” will treat listeners to a career-spanning evening that will include a first listen to songs from a forthcoming album. She will be joined by her longtime guitarist, Gerry Leonard.

Vega’s latest release, “An Evening of New York Songs and Stories,” has been met with positive reviews. There are only a handful of tickets left for her show at the Shea so I recommend moving fast on this one.

Also just announced at the Shea Theater, it’s Roomful of Blues on May 9 and singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell on Sept. 7.

The Summer Stage Series at Tree House Brewing Co. continues to add more shows to its schedule. Gary Clark Jr. will be there for two nights, June 30 and July 1, Gin Blossoms will perform on July 5, Dinosaur Jr. and Snail Mail will be there on July 15, and the Drive-By Truckers and Deer Tick will co-headline on July 30. Tickets are available at Tixr.com.

Last weekend, Mother Nature delivered a major snow and ice storm. We have some rescheduled dates here for shows that were initially slated to take place on Saturday, Feb. 15 but were postponed due to that storm.

The Do It Now show that was slated for the Wendell Full Moon Coffeehouse will now be held in May. We don’t have the exact date as this time.

The Zydeco Connection cabin fever night show at the Warwick Town Hall will be held this Saturday, Feb. 22. Music begins at 7 p.m, pizza dinner at 6 p.m.

The Pamela Means shows at Mt Toby Concerts in Leverett has been rescheduled for Friday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m.

The Cloudbelly and Suitcase Junket show at the Stone Church in Brattleboro has been rescheduled for Friday, March 21.

Sheryl Hunter is a freelance writer who resides in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national publications. She can be reached at soundslocal@yahoo.com.