You could say that Chris Castino is a writer of dance music. Not the kind you hear at any club. It’s the kind you hear at a Dead show, or festivals, when the crowd moves together spinning and bouncing like an ocean of blissful and emancipated souls. Chris is the primary songwriter for his longtime popular Minnesota-based rock’n’roll jamband The Big Wu. The Big Wu started in the mid 90’s and quickly ascended from the comforts of the local club scene to playing H.O.R.D.E Fest, Bonnaroo, Gathering of the Vibes, High Sierra, and the list goes on.
Castino joined forces with the incredibly talented band Chicken Wire Empire from Milwaukee, WI, and took the opportunity, while sitting through COVID-19 lock-downs in 2020 and 2021, to arrange some of his catalog into impeccably fitting bluegrass tunes. With the addition of many of Chris’s lifelong musical heroes, including several GRAMMY winning artists in the bluegrass and Americana: Sam Bush, Peter Rowan, Tim O’Brien, Jerry Douglas, Andy Hall, Vince Herman, Nick Forster, and Keller Williams, this feels like a classic bluegrass album and sounds instantly familiar. Fresh Pickles aims to satisfy your cravings—it is a light-hearted, down-home concept that plays with the idea that although some of the songs were written many years before, they now feel brand new. Fresh.
Fresh Pickles features 11 original songs penned by Castino. All of which, but one, were first released on four of The Big Wu’s five studio albums spanning from 1997-2019. Fresh Pickles can be seen as a retrospective and reexamination of these songs through a bluegrass lens and will be independently released on February 4th.
Adam Greuel (Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, The High Hawks) worked with Castino to produce the album, along with adding vocals on a couple of tracks (country-song-turned-funky “Minnesota Moon” and “Jackson County.”)
Fresh Pickles is just the beginning of Castino’s heartfelt and fulfilling voyage into bluegrass— it features stomping rippers and sweet, harmonic ballads, as well as a taste of genre-shifting psychedelic rides. Always true to the tradition and authentic in presentation, Fresh Pickles is packed with great music.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the atmospheric song from the road “Jackson County,” which features dobro master Jerry Douglas and Adam Greuel. This down home tune off The Big Wu’s 2019 album We Are Young We Are Old marries old timey bluegrass with a classic country songwriter sound. Castino sings with the kind of laid back, campfire swagger that lends itself well to this light-hearted advisory of a tune, and one can picture it right at home in the grainy picking sessions of Heartworn Highways. Of course, this being a song rooted in jam and then translated into bluegrass, we get a healthy dose of group interplay that shows the band’s love for bringing that live music feel to the studio. If this rendition of “Jackson County” is any indication, Castino is naturally suited for the bluegrass life and there is plenty to be excited for on Fresh Pickles.
“Traditional Bluegrass was never part of my musical childhood. I grew up on an iteration of the music that was called ‘Newgrass’ which incorporated Ragtime, BeBop, Fusion, and Rock. This song, ‘Jackson County,’ comes out of that tradition. It feels like authentic Bluegrass but is able to step away and explore. But the best part of this tune is the appearance of the legendary Newgrass pioneer Jerry Douglas. A dream come true for me.” –Chris Castino
2 Responses
Thanks for sharing this sneaky pickle with us. Gotta love any song about sweating the Wu funk. Great playing by all musicians. That dobro! Whoot! A familiar song reworked for current mood.
I was really interested in this album from the start, but rolling out one song at a time, with such great tunes and collaborations… WooHoo!
Thanks Chris Castino, Chicken Wire Empire, and all.