When you first hear 28-year-old Sean Costello with his soulful, emotive voice and his tasty guitar licks, it's tempting to compare him to Jonny Lang. Born less than two years apart and both making their proper debut albums at the age of sixteen, the comparisons between the two get even more unavoidable. When you listen closer, though, there's much more to Costello than Lang ever was.

For one, Costello's influences run much more varied and deeper. I often like to describe a musicians sound by listing the musicians who came before him that he sounds like. In Costello's case, the list is mind-boggling in length and diversity. His guitar, to me, conjures up Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Keith Richards, and Freddy King, among others. His gruff, passionate singing really sounds like no other but Johnny Taylor is his favorite singer and he probably draws a lot from him, along with Otis Redding, and Eddie Hinton. His music touches on Redding, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Bob Dylan, ZZ Top, and Fats Domino. I'm sure I just scratched the surfaced, too.

Costello has stated that he "wanted that feeling I get when I listen to my favorite records. I wanted to take a different spin on every song. I was trying to make it all sound fresh." His fresh approach to the old school blues, rock and roll, gospel, and soul makes him a worthy heir to Jimmie Lee Vaughan.

Costello didn't soak up influences just by sitting around listening to records, though. At eighteen he was the lead guitarist on Susan Tedeschi's seminal Just Won't Burn and has played alongside blues luminaries B.B. King, Guy, James Cotton, Pinetop Perkins, and Bo Diddley. Add to that the fact that he's been making his own records for twelve years, now, and you've got a guy who's been around the block quite a few times already.

After refining his sound over four albums, We Can Get Together finds Costello really getting his groove going in every aspect. The guitar playing is concise, the vocals are fervent without being overly so, and the songwriting is mature.