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Miriam Huertas, senior vice president of Allentown Initiatives for the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, took the main stage Saturday between burning blues acts at Allentown’s free downtown Blues Brews and Barbecue festival, which was celebrating a decade of existence. “This was the 10th year,” Huertas said. “So we knew we needed to kick it up a notch.” And kick it up the festival did – in near every way, but definitely with its headline music acts. The Peterson brothers, two barely-legal sibling guitarists from Texas, played one of the funkiest, most fun headline sets the festival has seen. And Albert Castiglia, whose 2014 album “Solid Ground” hit the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top Blues Albums chart, blazed through a set of accessible populist blues. With near-perfect weather by the time Castiglia took the stage – high temperatures of 86 had cooled to a comfortable 81 by then – the PPL Plaza on Hamilton Street was a sea of people settled in to be entertained. And Castiglia entertained them. His set off a dozen songs in 90 minutes had a George Thorogood vibe – leaving the audience feeling like it had discovered the hardest-working, most talented bar-band blue trio there is. Castiglia’s early turns on Brian Stoltz’s “Up All Night” (which he said he just recorded for a new CD), Freddy King’s ”Can’t Trust Your Neighbor” and Junior Wells’ “Hoodoo Man Blues” (on which he inserted “Allentown” into the lyrics) showed Castiglia could rip on guitar, though it often was more about speed than intention. And his vocals were Thorogood-esque – the delivery of an everyman filled with attitude. But Castiglia got better as his set went on. His own “What the Hell was I Thinking” was a racing blues rocker. “Lovin’ Cup” also was blues rock, with a touch of surf rock added for good measure. (He played the latter as a request, after jokingly replying “We were gonna do a Justin Bieber song, but we can do that one.” And he ripped at another request, Guitar Slim’s “The Things That I Used to Do.” Castiglia’s playing found its intention later, with precision playing, varied playing, and showboating with his hands all over the guitar. On a late-set instrumental, he played half the song using just his hand on the frets – even playing while chugging a cup of beer with his other hand. “Hey that was fun – let’s do that one again,” he joked afterward. He closed his set with the very good “Get Your Ass in the Van,” his hands flying all over the guitar on the light-hearted diatribe about young players not wanting to pay their dues with the lyrical refrain “This ain’t ‘American Idol’/Ain’t no deals being made at the crossroads.’” Earlier in the show, Castiglia said that if not for Wells, “I wouldn’t be here right now. I would be working at the welfare office in Miami, Florida. Now I’m on the other side. That’s OK, money isn’t everything.” Perhaps that’s what keeps Castiglia still making music as if he was hungry. Headliners The Peterson Brothers were the guitar prodigies there were advertised as. In a set that lasted just over 90 minutes, they displayed playing talent that was not only impressive, but intuitive. How they know so much at their ages (lead guitarist Glenn is 20; five-string bassist Alex is 18) is amazing. Their 12-song set of funk-rock-blues, backed only by a drummer, included several instrumentals that showed just how good they are – Alex wildly slapping his bass from the start and Glenn playing intrinsically gifted lead. They played The Spinners’ “I’ll Be Around” as smoldering funky rock. Albert Collins’ “If You Love Me Like You Say” became scratchy-guitar funk that sounded like Prince. And a late-set, 15-minute instrumental was an astonishing display as the brothers not only played as funky as The Time, but cribbed some of that band’s choreographed dance moves, as well. Showing just how well-schooled they are, the brothers stopped dead in the middle of the seminal blues-rock standard “Don’t You Lie to Me” and paused a good 20 seconds, standing as still as statues, before bursting into a tight finish. But The Peterson Brothers showed they could play traditional blues, as well, paying justice to Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “I Wouldn’t Treat a Dog” with their most intentional guitar to that point. The set’s finish was great. As temperatures dipped to a comfortable 73 degrees, a nice breeze kicked up as the brothers lightly stepped into an other-worldly “Amazing Grace” on guitar and fiddle, burst into a kicking, 12-minute version of “Got My Mojo Working” on which they came out into the crowd to play. With that kind of talent this young, it’s going to be interesting what The Peterson Brothers do when age really gives them the blues. Those headliners indicated just how good a day of music the 10th annual Blues Brews and Barbecue was, with 14 acts on five stages throughout the downtown. The streets were packed – as full as last year’s estimated crowd of 20,000. Perhaps that’s what led to one of the day’s complaints: inordinately long beer lines, despite the size of the festival’s three beer tents being increased this year. It also was amazing how mixed and multicultural the crowd was – by age, by race, by apparent social status. The festival was a true melting pot. And what was really telling was that, even away from the main stage, Allentown’s downtown streets – and bars and restaurants -- still were very full at 10 p.m. People were packed around the center city monument to watch the festival-closing fireworks. And that is the festival’s whole idea – to get people into downtown Allentown. Read the original article here.