Castro's

Mike Daley & Mark Thackway
2024-01-25 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Toronto)
Mike Daley is a guitarist and singer based in Toronto. A professional musician for over 30 years, Mike has toured Canada, the United States and England and has recorded extensively in a variety of musical styles. He is a longtime member of Fraser/Daley with bassist Alec Fraser and is also proud to work with a variety of bands around Toronto including the Tom Waits Appreciation Congregation, the Travellers and others.
Mark Thackway is a veteran of legendary jam bands like The Other One and Days of You. He performs with WS Dupree and other conglomerations including this popular duo with Mike Daley, playing acoustic versions of the music of the Grateful Dead.

Fraser / Daley
2024-01-26 17:30 - 19:30, 2024-02-09 17:30 - 19:30
A popular concert and recording act for over 14 years, Toronto-based Fraser/Daley has released three CDs of original music and performed widely, consistently entertaining audiences with their large and varied repertoire, big sound and spontaneous sense of fun. Alec Fraser hails from Glasgow, Scotland and is a respected bassist and Juno and Maple Blues Award winner. Mike Daley was dubbed by Jeff Healey ‘one of Canada’s finest guitarists’ and has a long list of live and studio credits. Alec and Mike met while working in Healey’s touring band in the mid-2000s and found that they enjoyed singing together after the gig. In 2008 they began playing together regularly in Toronto as Alec perfected a unique bass-drums combination instrument that gives this duo the unmistakable sound of a trio. Their three albums, Fraser/Daley, The Whole Fam Damily and Fifty Miles of Elbow Room have garnered steady sales and strong airplay on blues and folk radio, and Alec and Mike have become sought after for their versatile performances, playing everything from intimate house concerts to street dances. Learn more at fraserdaley.com.

Communism
2024-01-26 21:00 - 23:00
Communism is a dance party band with high ideals and high kicks. Original songs and classic dance floor anthems by Donna Summer, Kate Bush, Talking Heads, Prince, and much 80’s.

Don Kerr drums (Bahamas, Dan Mangan, Ron Sexsmith, Rheostatics)
Jason Haberman bass (Yaehsun, Yukon Blonde, Dan Mangan)
Mike O’Brien guitar (Zeus, Dan Mangan)
Craig Small – projections

We are Communism – Don, Mike, Jason, & Craig. Joy, unity, and a dance floor for your heart.

Danny Marks
2024-01-27 17:00 - 19:00, 2024-02-10 17:00 - 19:00, 2024-02-24 17:00 - 19:00
This iconic rocker’s roots go back to the sixties as a founding member of Capitol Records’ group, Edward Bear. After a span as a journey man session musician throughout the seventies, Danny settled in to the club scene, establishing a cult following as a genre bender in music and humor.
A house band gig at Toronto’s famed Albert’s Hall led him to host his own nation-wide TV show, Stormy Monday. Through the eighties, Danny starred in CBC radio’s hit series the Hum Line.
Most recently, Danny Marks recorded two original music albums, Guitarchaeology and True, before paying tribute to Toronto’s R&B roots with Big Town Boy in 2005.
Danny’s in his thirteenth year as the radio host of JAZZ.FM91’s Saturday night blues show, bluz.fm.
As a child, young Danny would lock himself in his room with a stack of 45’s, an old Seabreeze record player, and a fantasy of having his own radio show. More than a few years later this pre-pubescent propensity paid off.

Left Turn (with Mike Sedgewick & Juliett Ann)
2024-01-28 15:00 - 18:00
What happens when a seasoned blues band steps outside the genre and covers all the hits from the past few decades in pop, rock, funk, R&B? You get Left Turn. Born out of the popular Friday Night Blues Jam, the house band decided that they needed an act that would allow them to combine all of the different influences the members bring to the table. One song to the next is a complete left turn from covers of: Lenny Kravitz, Beatles, Radiohead, Amy Winehouse, Rolling Stones, Bill Withers, GnR, Doobie Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, AC/DC, Hendrix, 4 Non Blondes, Tina Turner, etc. This high energy act plays with the conviction of a blues band, which creates a unique vibe and experience for the listener. This band has been gaining attention with a standout debut performance at the 2023 East York Blues Festival. Come and see what all the buzz is about! The band is made up of the powerhouse vocals of Juliet Ann, searing guitar chops of Mike Sedgewick, thundering bass of Tex Bach, and solid groove of Paul Domanski.

Mike Daley & Wendell Ferguson
2024-02-01 18:00 - 20:00
Mike Daley is a guitarist and singer based in Toronto. A professional musician for over 30 years, Mike has toured Canada, the United States and England and has recorded extensively in a variety of musical styles. He is a longtime member of Fraser/Daley with bassist Alec Fraser and is also proud to work with a variety of bands around Toronto including the Tom Waits Appreciation Congregation, the Travellers and others.
Born and still residing in Streetsville (Mississauga), Ontario, Wendell became fixated on being a guitar player after hearing Chet Atkins play the instrument. Although he took several years of formal guitar lessons, Wendell was off-and-running as a guitar player, fueled more by listening to and emulating the recordings of some of his guitar idols: Chet Atkins, Les Paul, The Ventures and other guitar gods. Fast forward to 1998 and we find Wendell Ferguson releasing the first in what would be a series of solo albums, mixing his guitar strengths with his off-the-cuff songwriting and his distinctive vocal styling. The first album, “I Pick Therefore I Jam”, was loaded with truly innovative work; not the least of which being a duet offering, “If You’re Gonna Be A Cowboy”, with Russell deCarle of Prairie Oyster fame – their effort earning a nomination for Collaboration of the Year at the 1999 CCMA Awards. Meanwhile Wendell’s guitar work was much in-demand, and he was often called upon to tour in support of top-level Canadian artists, including: Shania Twain, George Fox, Duane Steele, Tommy Hunter, Michelle Wright, etc. Wendell Ferguson’s work has not gone unrewarded. He was nominated for a Juno Award (in 1995, for Group of the Year with Coda The West) and he has been named the CCMA’s All-Star Band Guitar Player of the Year so many times that he is deemed no longer eligible. Wendell Ferguson was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

Sugar Rush
2024-02-02 17:30 - 19:30, 2024-02-16 17:30 - 19:30, 2024-02-23 17:30 - 19:30
Sugar Rush is the ultimate party band, playing really fun, upbeat covers spanning different genres from classic rock, funk, soul, blues, country, jazz, disco, 80s, motown, hard rock, reggae, oldies, R&B, and folk! Get ready for a full evening of dancing, singalongs and just really good music!
Sugar Rush has been a GTA staple since 2007, returning to the circuit after a brief hiatus, familiar to many a musician and music fan for their jam nights at the Curzon, their Friday night residency at the Loaded Dog, beach parties and corporate events. Anchored by Frankie Dee and Tony Carpino with a rotation of top notch players with special surprise guests and currently featuring Gary Lee Hill. This dynamic crew brings all the best classic rock, funk, soul, blues and much more to keep the floor filled. Always guaranteed sweet sounds with Sugar Rush.

DJ Rob
2024-02-02 22:00 - 2024-02-03 02:00, 2024-03-01 22:00 - 2024-03-02 02:00

Thelonious Hank
2024-02-03 17:00 - 19:00, 2024-03-02 17:00 - 19:00
Thelonious Hank plays your father’s country, rock n’ roll, and jazz. They don’t use set lists and they take requests all day long

The Del-Fis
2024-02-04 15:00 - 18:00
I don’t know what The Del Fi’s are; the more I think about it, the more I don’t know what to say. But I know it’s right, and I know it’s good. I know it works. I mean, it’s Jerry Leger’s thing, but when I asked him what he would say The Del Fi’s are, all he would tell me is that I (meaning me) am The Del Fi’s, just as you (meaning you) are The Del Fi’s. And because you are you, you understand. Don’t you?
Okay, maybe we should try this again. Jerry Leger is a Toronto singer/songwriter, and one of the best in the world, as far as I’m concerned. If you haven’t heard him, you have no right to be one of these people constantly moaning about how music was so much better when people actually played instruments, blah, blah, blah.
Jerry loves Bob Dylan, Neil Young and John Lennon. Sometimes it sounds as though all three are fighting for space in his songs. But those songs are his own, the product of a natural born storyteller with a sense of rhythm that would make Little Richard’s big toe shoot up in his boot.
Jerry’s songs hit deep in your soul, but he also often loves just making music with folks just to flex some of his old time rock and roll muscles, and explore some of the paths his songwriting normally doesn’t take. That’s kinda where The Del Fi’s come in.
It’s rock and roll that we all care about right? I’m sure you wouldn’t still be reading this if you didn’t agree. So I guess that does make you a Del Fi. Welcome aboard and grab an instrument, we’ve got a show to do.

Tom Waits Appreciation Congregation
2024-02-05 19:30 - 22:00, 2024-03-04 19:30 - 22:00
The Tom Waits Appreciation Congregation (TWAC) comprise of some of the best musicians in all of Toronto coming together for their love of Tom Waits and paying Tribute to him and his music!

Trivia Night @ Castros
2024-02-06 19:00 - 22:00
Join us for a fun and friendly trivia night on the 1st Tuesday of every month at Castros. Free to play and prizes for the winners.

Mike Daley & Eric Schenkman
2024-02-08 18:00 - 20:00
Mike Daley is a guitarist and singer based in Toronto. A professional musician for over 30 years, Mike has toured Canada, the United States and England and has recorded extensively in a variety of musical styles. He is a longtime member of Fraser/Daley with bassist Alec Fraser and is also proud to work with a variety of bands around Toronto including the Tom Waits Appreciation Congregation, the Travellers and others.
You may have seen Eric Schenkman onstage before thousands of fans worldwide with the Spin Doctors. He is one of the band’s not-so-secret weapons — a vital songwriter and virtuoso
guitarist who crafted the ‘90s band and co-wrote all five of their Top 100 hits. He also worked with Chico Hamilton, Carly Simon, Natalie Merchant, Noel Redding, Phoebe Snow and Corky Laing, among many other notable musicians.

Mike Daley & Jesse Whiteley
2024-02-15 18:00 - 20:00
Mike Daley is a guitarist and singer based in Toronto. A professional musician for over 30 years, Mike has toured Canada, the United States and England and has recorded extensively in a variety of musical styles. He is a longtime member of Fraser/Daley with bassist Alec Fraser and is also proud to work with a variety of bands around Toronto including the Tom Waits Appreciation Congregation, the Travellers and others.
Toronto native Jesse Whiteley is a passionate and multi-talented pianist/keyboardist, singer, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He comes from a third generation of one of Canada’s most renowned musical families, the Whiteley family. Throughout his diverse musical life, Jesse has performed the gamut of musical genres from blues, jazz, swing, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, to roots, and country.
Jesse began working professionally at age 17 with the Toronto All-Star Big Band. Throughout his years with the Big Band, he has worked as both a pianist and conductor and has shared the stage with such luminaries from the blues and jazz world as Clark Terry, Jackie Richardson, Oliver Jones, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, and Doc Severinsen. Jesse conducted the band full-time from 2018 to 2022.
Another one of Jesse’s projects is the jazz duo Blue Standard, featuring the vocal stylings of Maple Blues Award winner and acclaimed actor Raoul Bhaneja, accompanied by Jesse on piano. Their debut album “A Good Thing” was released worldwide in January of 2019. Matthew Wright of Jazz Journal writes that the album “benefits from the presence of pianist Jesse Whiteley, a competent and expressive pianist who not only accompanies thoughtfully, but has the ability to vary his approach, from boogie-woogie/stride to swing and modern styles. His solos are brief but effective.”
From 2014 to 2017, Jesse toured and recorded as a member of The 24th Street Wailers, playing across Canada and The United States. He has also recorded and toured throughout Canada, The United States, and Europe with Ottawa’s JW-Jones. He has appeared on recordings with legendary blues musicians Curley Bridges, Little Charlie Baty, Hubert Sumlin, Charlie Musselwhite, dad, Chris Whiteley and uncle, Ken Whiteley.
After graduating with honours from the Contemporary Music Program at Toronto’s Humber College, Jesse completed a Masters Degree at York University in Music Composition.
Jesse can be seen performing under his own name and accompanying many different artists and groups around the Toronto music scene, and anywhere else the music takes him.

Lily Frost
2024-02-17 17:00 - 19:00
Lily Frost is a dramatic, stylish performer who draws from the aesthetic of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the soundtracks of Quentin Tarantino, and the hot & bothered emotional drama that goes on between us fascinating humans. The poetry of Rimbaud, the erotica of Anaïs Nin, and torch singers like Julie London & Juliette Greco serve as strong influences. Frost has toured from Paris to Los Angeles and has shared stages with Pink Martini, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Coldplay and many more. Her awards include the Video Silver Sun through Bravo, a Gemini nomination for her theme song co-write for the hit TV series “Being Erica”, and Vancouver Female Vocalist of the Year in 2003. Lily’s songs have been frequently placed in TV shows and movies such as Grey’s Anatomy, Crazy Beautiful, Chevy Cobalt, Charmed, Felicity, and many more. Her efforts are now focused on curating a show that combines swing, rockabilly, burlesque, dance & fashion in an event called Big City Social.

Will Whitwham
2024-02-18 15:00 - 18:00
Will Whitwham is one of Canada’s most prolific and talented singer/songwriters. As a founding member of the Wilderness of Manitoba, he has written and recorded five albums and three EPs. The group was nominated for a JUNO award. The Wilderness of Manitoba toured Canada, the US, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany including performances at the End of the Road Festival, WOMAD, SXSW and the Reeperbahn Festival.
He has also written and recorded two albums as Lake Forest, an EP for the Whateverly Brothers, an album for Pyramid Tropic, and collaborated with recording artists Martha Johnson, Eamon McGrath and Delhi 2 Dublin. The Wilderness of Manitoba was nominated for Sync Artist or Songwriter of the Year at the first Canadian Sync Awards during Canadian Music Week. Their songs (written by Whitwham) have appeared in such US television series as This Is Us, Elementary, Parenthood and No Tomorrow among others. Whitwham’s next project is an EP under his own name called End of Dreams.

The 501 East
2024-02-19 20:00 - 22:00

Fraser Melvin & Jenie Thai
2024-02-22 18:00 - 20:00
Fraser Melvin is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, arranger, composer, and bandleader. He plays guitar, lap steel, mandolin, ukulele, bass, keys, trombone, and sings. Fraser has been performing in and around Toronto and Southern Ontario since 2006 with his own group, The Fraser Melvin Band, as well as numerous other bands including Bad Luck Woman & Her Misfortunes, Sam Polley And The Old Tomorrows, and The Jenie Thai Band. With over 15 years experience in the music business, Fraser has performed at the Toronto Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Tremblant International Blues Festival, and the Kitchener Blues Festival as well as opened for Johnny Winter, Jim Cuddy, and Chilliwack.
When you meet her, Jenie Thai is composed, pleasant, amiable, friendly, and — she won’t like the word but you have to live with it — sweet. She has an open face, long hair, a ready smile and an easy laugh.
And she is also tough, and gritty, and plays barrelhouse piano steeped in the blues — and if that wasn’t enough to get your head around, she also writes and sings tough and tender ballads, direct from her heart to yours.
There’s a new album, Night on Fire, with a sold out show at Toronto’s Hugh’s Room and — while she now calls Toronto home — she lives on the road, and there’s dust on her shoes, love in her heart, and a whole lot of music in her soul.

The Gary Kendall Trio
2024-02-25 15:00 - 18:00
Gary Kendall, originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario has been a working musician since the late 1960s. He is a multiple Maple Blues Award winner as bassist of the year[1] and a Juno Award winner with the Downchild Blues Band. His distinguished musical career was so honoured by the Maple Blues Awards as early as 1993 and a Juno Award in 2014.[2] Since 1999, Kendall has acted as the musical director of the Maple Blues awards program.[3]

Mike Daley & Chris Chambers
2024-02-29 18:00 - 20:00
Mike Daley is a guitarist and singer based in Toronto. A professional musician for over 30 years, Mike has toured Canada, the United States and England and has recorded extensively in a variety of musical styles. He is a longtime member of Fraser/Daley with bassist Alec Fraser and is also proud to work with a variety of bands around Toronto including the Tom Waits Appreciation Congregation, the Travellers and others.
Chris Chambers is a guitar player, singer, songwriter and producer having performed for over 20 years. As a solo artist, Chambers has released two independent records and various singles and toured in Canada, Europe and parts of the US.
Chambers has shared the stage with artists such as Steve Earle, Trooper, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Randy Bachman, Teenage Head, Philip Sayce, Tony Springer, Morgan Davis, Matt Schofield, The Georgia Satellites, Sue Foley and is a regular in the summer festival circuit (Cavendish Beach Music Festival, Canada’s Largest Rifest, the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE)) as a featured artist as well as a sideman as well as performing historic venues like The Great Hall at Hamilton Place as well as Ivor Wynne Stadium (Tim Hortons Field) and Copps Coliseum (First Ontario Place)
As a session musician, Chambers has also performed on numerous independent releases and worked alongside notable producers such as Tim Tickner & Nick Blagona (The Police, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd). He has written and produced music for international ad campaigns for companies such as Volkswagen.

Po' Boy Jeffreys
2024-03-01 17:30 - 19:30
Po’Boy Jeffreys is a folk music group revitalize roots music through their energetic performance and unique style, whilst maintaining integrity and nostalgia through their use of traditional instruments.

Gypsy Rebels
2024-03-03 15:00 - 18:00
We’re a Toronto-based Gypsy Band that features a repertoire of traditional and original Roma Gypsy with a fresh ‘Toronto’ vibe!
