SEAN COSTELLO Source: Portfolio Weekly Date: 07/2008 Writer: Alan Kurzer

Who: Atlanta, Georgia’s best-kept, blues-belting secret.

Sounds like: James Brown via Paul Rodgers… Hubert Sumlin channeling Buddy Guy

Is it any good? By age 19, Phillie native Sean Costello had already recorded his first solo disc and laid down some major guitar fireworks on Susan Tedeschi’s breakthrough album, Just Won’t Burn. On his fifth recorded effort, Costello juggles soul and New Orleans and Chicago blues into vibrant, new musical territory. “Anytime you Want” rolls along like a bluesy, bastardized, Mississippi-bred “Help Me”, showered by Costello’s upper register, emotional shouting and well-integrated Hammond organ. The Memphis soul nugget, “Can’t Let Go”, revisits sweet, R&B roots with a chunky, wahwahed six-string workout, while the ‘70s, urban soul stirrer, “All This Time”, feeds Costello’s extra-raspy vocals with his melodic, descending guitar lines. “Same Old Game” is a dirty, swamp rocker ala Creedence’s “Born On The Bayou,” chock full of Costello’s tremolo-dripping guitars.