Singer-guitarist Tommy Castro admits there's a down side to his all-star Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue show, which rolls into the Egyptian Theatre on Tuesday, Sept. 30.

It's loooooooooong.

With four half-hour headliners - Castro, Magic Dick, Deanna Bogart and Kenny Neal - followed by a climactic all-musician jam session, it's enough to send beer-swilling blues fans running for the Red Bull vendor instead.

"A lot of people really like that," Castro explains in a phone interview from his California home. "We tire out the band, and we tire out some of the audience - "

A voice interrupts in the background. It's harmonica virtuoso Magic Dick.

"- except Magic Dick," Castro corrects himself, chuckling. "He never gets tired."

It's no wonder. Castro, his harp-blowing pal and the rest of the group have had lots of practice staying up late. The members met while participating in the bi-annual Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, an 1,800-passenger ship concert that attracts diehard blues fans from across the globe.

With 20 top blues acts performing all day and evening on the ocean with no place to go, Castro says, there's inevitably a jam session at the end of the night - or, more accurately, into the wee hours of the morning.
Over the years, that jam has turned into the cruise's main event, Castro says. It gave him the idea to create a landlubber's version.

"Watching the reaction of the audience to this thing going down - this thing doesn't start until 1 o'clock in the morning ... that's what gave me the idea," Castro says. "I said, 'Man, there's got to be a way we can do something like this out on the road.' Because people just love it so much. They're just hanging there until 5 or 6 in the morning watching the jams happen."

Using his regular band to back the group, the Revue has toured multiple times since forming in 2007. But Castro sounds like a kid on Christmas morning as he packs his bags and waits for the tour bus to whisk Magic Dick and him away again.

"We just did a show Saturday in Santa Rosa," Castro says, "And you'd think, you've been doing this for a while, and you've seen some pretty good jams happen, but it was really off the hook this time."
Based on the assembled talent, it's not so surprising.

Castro won the B.B. King Blues Entertainer of the Year award at the Blues Music Awards (formerly W.C. Handy Awards) earlier this year. His latest album, "Painkiller," won Contemporary Blues Album of the Year.
Magic Dick, who came to fame in the J. Geils Band, is a harmonica shredder who's almost guaranteed to perform his classic ripper "Whammer Jammer." (If he does, you can also bet that Castro will scream, "Magic Dick on the lickin' stick, ladies and gentlemen!")

Kenny Neal - who is taking the place of Ronnie Baker Brooks during this leg of the Revue's trek - is a singer-guitarist known for his swampy blues style.

Versatile East Coast phenom DeannaBogart, who sings and plays piano and saxophone, sums up the Revue's philosophy with the label she gives her own brand of music: "blusion."
She'll gladly crank up a cover of Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round in Circles," which certainly isn't blues by any purist's definition.

"It's R&B," Castro agrees. "We play anything. (This) really is a cross between a jam band and a blues revue. When the jam starts in, we take chances. We're going places.

"We're not playing it safe up there. Deanna, especially, has a great flair for improvisation, and she just does something different every night."

In the often predictable genre of blues, it seems unusual for a band to live by the motto "keep it fresh." But that's exactly what the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue does each night, Castro says.

"We might start messing around with a little jam at sound check," he explains, "and before it gets too orchestrated and rehearsed, somebody will say, 'Keep it fresh!' and we'll stop playing it and save it for the jam."

Castro compares each jam to cliff diving - there's just enough danger to keep it thrilling.

"It could be great. It could be terrible. You never know. You just have to come and see!" he says, cackling with laughter.