South Florida blues guitarist Albert Castiglia has set a performance at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale in December on a tour with Bill Murray. Yes, the revered actor and pop-culture Zelig. That Bill Murray.
Tickets just went on sale for the concert by Bill Murray & His Blood Brothers on Dec. 7. Prices start at $64.31 at BrowardCenter.org.
The band is a mashup of Murray, a singer of wide-ranging musical interests, plus Canned Heat icon Jimmy Vivino (also Conan O’Brien’s musical director), and Blood Brothers, the fiery collaboration between Wilton Manors resident Castiglia and acclaimed blues guitarist Mike Zito.
The Castiglia-Zito album “Blood Brothers” won the award for Blues Rock Album of the Year at the 2024 Blues Music Awards in Memphis, and they are set to drop a new release, “Help Yourself,” in September. Individually, Zito is a nine-time winner at the Blues Music Awards, while Castiglia has won five times.
The Blood Brothers’ relationship with Murray began when the actor got onstage with them in September at the famed Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas — a well-received set that included Murray’s vocals on The Beatles’ “Slow Down,” and Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.”
Murray’s most prominent foray into music came during his stint on “Saturday Night Live” in the late 1970s, with his Nick the Lounge Singer character torturing songs like “Brandy” and the theme from “Star Wars.” More recently, Murray has performed with John Prine & The Steeldrivers at the Grand Ole Opry, at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival and at the benefit concert Love Rocks NYC at the famed Beacon Theatre.
Murray brought music of a different kind to South Florida in 2018 at Festival of the Arts Boca. There, he set passages of great literature to classical music in a production called “New Worlds,” accompanied by famed cellist Jan Vogler, violinist Mira Wang and pianist Vanessa Perez.
For more information on the tour, visit BloodBrothersBand.com.
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and X @BenCrandell.