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Sean Costello RIP
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
by Coy Bowles
www.coybowles.com
So I’ve been wanting to write a blog about Sean for a couple
days now. But I guess I just now
found the mental and emotional place
to write.
Sean just recently released an album
about a month ago. Called “ We Can Get Together”. Please
buy it. It’s cheap and it’s all that’s left. I promise
you’ll love it.
Sean Costello, a local Atl. Singer/
Songwriter, badass guitarist, national
touring blues artist, good friend,
and big inspiration of mine passed
away on Tuesday April 15th,
one day before his 29th birthday.
I would like to say that from the
second that I moved to Atlanta Sean
Costello was THE badass guitarist
of the city. I mean This dude could
play the piss out of the guitar.
Me and my old roommate Adam Knight used to sit down and steal his licks
off his albums. I mean straight up learn them and steal them. I used
teach all my students who were studying how to solo on the guitar this
Sean Costello solo. I can’t
really tell you how much I looked
up to this guy.
I have lived at Northside Tavern
for years now. When I first moved
to Atlanta earning the respect of
the musicians at Northside Tavern
was my goal. I mean I respected these people and their dedication to
their work. They were great musicians. I was like a sponge. I soaked
it all up. And to me, Sean was my age but just so good that it was
like he was a super hero. I mean I used to go see him play when I was
22. I would go up to him all nervous at the end of the show and say “Hey
man you sounded great” and
I would wonder if that was too much.
HAHA. But I later played and got better and earned more respect and
became apart of the Northside Community. But Sean was always like the
golden child. I mean he just had that touch, that ear, that voice.
I’ve been at Northside before when
there was 7 people in there, it was
3:00 in the morning and Sean was playing Mudcat’s acoustic guitar
through a old vibrolux amp. It was the best guitar playing I’ve
ever heard. He could change when he got on stage. He would turn
into this person who was a portal.
He would let you know how bad it
hurt to be Sean Costello sometimes. I mean right there in front of
you was a guy laying it all out there about how bad it hurt via musical
expression.
Sean was a kind of shy guy. He had
a very boyish nature to him. He was
not very outspoken but he had his
way about things and they were on
point and specific. He was real picky
about his bass player and drummer.
He didn’t play with HACKS.
He had guys who were rooted in the
earth of blues and soul music. I
mean Sean had probably spent more
hours in front of a stereo with a
guitar in his hands than you can
imagine. He could play. I mean really play. My other big inspiration,
Oliver Wood, and I used to sit around and talk guitar. We would talk
about this guitarist, and that record, and all that but we would at
the end of the conversation say ”Sean
can play as good if not better than
all of them”. But once you
got to know Sean he was more than
meets the eye. He drank a good bit.
He had issues with other substances.
He was that I know of to be bipolar.
The reason I’m mentioning some
things that are rather personal is
for a point. Sean was a artist who
was hard on himself. We
all as artists battle ourselves and
the struggle of life. But Sean had
a heavy dose of it. He felt pressure
from a lot of angles. Record companies,
blues police, other musicians, girls,
and god knows what else pulled at Sean. He was a wonderful person.
Very heart warming and positive. Very charming and funny. I’m
mean he was a great guy. But he had
an edge to him. You knew that he
hurt. He would play that shit out
of himself right there in front of
you. I really respected him for that. To let it all hang out. People
loved him for that. They could pay $5-$20 and see the real deal. The
baddest most ripping singer guitarist. It sucks that it all went to
far. I know from now until I die I will always butt in and say something
to someone who’s
slipping. We all saw Sean sliding.
That is so sad.
As I sit here and write this. I feel
a huge loss. I lost someone to look up to. We lost a very talented
person. He changed peoples lives with that talent. And for the better.
God Bless Sean Costello for being the real deal. I will never forget
him. I really really thought the most of him. I was proud to call him
my friend.
I have to mention this.
There is a picture of Sean at Fatt
Matt’s rib shack in Atlanta. He’s on the stage with BB
King and all these other legendary blues guys. Sean’s playing
his ass off at the front of the stage on his tip toes and all these
legendary musicians are on stage looking at him with total focus. They
are like “man this kid is it”.
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View/Sign Guestbook
Sean Costello Eulogy
by Paul Campenella Jr, Aaron Trubic,
and Jon Liebman
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Sean's passing was so sudden and senseless but truly accidental. His
love for his music, his friends, fans and especially his family however
was real and so very genuine and intentional. It was this love that
kept him going when times were at their darkest. It was what made him
the wonderful musician and human being that we know that he was.
But instead of gathering here to mourn his death, we should remember
the very special things about Sean that gave him life.
What was so important to Sean was to gain the love and respect of
those he cared about and would do everything short of stop time in
order to get it. When Sean loved you, you knew it. If you accepted
it, you had a friend for life.
Sean identified with American music at a young age and saw his reflection
in the stories that it told. He used this love as the basis on which
to build his life. A naturally shy person, Sean used music to reach
out and show us who he really was. And through Sean we saw what was
best about the Blues - it's intensity of emotion, it's truth - it's
soul.
The stage was Sean's sanctuary and his salvation. It was where he
felt most comfortable and most confident. It was his home. It was on
these stages where he met his closest friends and forged bonds that
would shape his destiny.
On these stages, Sean was a star.
His best friends will remember most what an honor it was to live with
him, and to share a part of those stages with him. We will remember
how special we felt to be a part of his life. We will remember how
we tried to take care of him, and how he tried to take care of us.
In our lives, Sean was a star.
It was his music that allowed him to shine the brightest.
It was his love that allowed us to
bask in that light.
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Sean Costello Eulogy