Blues and Rhythm Magazine Names “Knock A Hole In It” CD of the Month

Mr. Sipp’s latest album Knock A Hole In It was selected by Blues and Rhythm Magazine in the United Kingdom as CD of the month. They also gave the project a glowing review. Read it in it’s entirety below:

Written By Mike Stephenson

“Castro Coleman, aka Mr. Sipp, has trail blazed his modern and fiery blues sounds around the world over the past couple of years and has become a much in demand modern blues act who is renowned for putting on incendiary live performances. It could be said he leads the new generation of modern blues acts that have proliferated from the Southern states of the U.S. for over the past five or so years.

His latest release, the follow up to the successful “Mississippi Blues Child” of 2015, from Jackson’s famed Malaco Records clearly shows why he’s held in such high regard. Recorded at Malaco’s new, state of the art studios, and produced by the artist, along with Tommy Couch Jr., all but one of the numbers are original and feature a full band aided by the three-piece Jackson Horns, arranged by Castro and the late Harrison Calloway, and Castro playing guitar and singing throughout, so it all bodes well. There is a great variety of modern blues music to be heard here that should please most, if not all, fans with a liking for current blues trends.

It starts with the almost hard rock blues title track with its insistent riffing and Castro’s incendiary guitar work to the fore, and on which he sounds almost autobiographical in the lyrical message. If you like up-tempo blues romps then “Bad Feeling”, “Juke Joint”, and the horn driven “Turn Up” will do it for you. Success has its drawbacks, as described on the chug a lug “Stalking Me” with its modern lyrics, which is a track Malaco has been promoting via a Youtube video. If the relentless heavy blues groove of the Stevie Ray Vaughan sounding “Gotta Let Her Go” does not get your feet moving you are a lost cause and it has the added bonus of Castro’s inventive and fiery guitar lines.

“Going Down” and its pounding groove reminded me of another young Mississippi firebrand blues act, Jarekus Singleton. On the slow burn stop go blues “Strings Attached” Castro and the band pull out all the stops on the emotion laden number that builds in intensity before Castro explodes in all directions with his superb heavy guitar tones. His vocal performance on this track is exceptional . Lovely sweet soulful ballads are heard on “Sea Of Love” which borders on near mainstream, and on “Baby Your Mine” gospel is not far away and “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” takes you back to soul heaven of the 60’s. Castro offers a cracking take of “Little Wing” which has him playing absolutely stunning guitar that will raise the goosebumps on you for sure and, with the dramatic sounding backing from the band that can drop to a whisper in a second from a crescendo, it sends this superb set of music out on a might high. To put it simply this is a contemporary blues fan’s heaven. This is the contemporary blues release of the year so far for this reviewer.”