Blues stars stellar together.

Talk about the band that plays together staying together. The entire all-star lineup of the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue is tooling along on a bus, packed together like tinned sardines.

Ringleader Tommy Castro is trying to conduct an interview via a dodgy cell phone.

Meanwhile, fellow travelers/headliners Deanna Bogart, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Magic Dick pass the time in their own ways.

Amid convivial laughter and half-heard asides, it's determined that Bogart is watching a DVD of "Carlito's Way" with Al Pacino.

Brooks, it is revealed, is prone to fast-forwarding through the Tommy Chong movie "Far Out Man" to "the funny parts"(and, yes, Castro assures us, there ARE funny parts in that forgotten stoner relic from 1990).

As for Magic Dick?

When informed that the harmonica great will be missing his fellow J. Geils Band founder Peter Wolf by just a couple weeks, there's an audible exhortation to be heard.

The near-collision is a result of Wolf's appearance with Kid Rock at Bloomington's U.S. Cellular Coliseum two weekends ago and Dick's appearance tonight with the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue a dozen blocks to the south at the New Lafayette Club.

All agree that the odds of two J. Geils Band founding fathers appearing separately here within days of each other are practically off the chart.

On or off the chart, "we're having a lot of laughs," Castro says of the caravan of headliners sharing marquee space with equal billing. "And it's different from anything I've done before. For the past 15 years, it's usually been just me and my band traveling together. But this is more fun because we've got some pretty good personalities."

To say the least.

Since each member of the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue would be worth the price of admission alone, fans are getting a sweet deal. (For audio-visual proof, go to Castro's Web site, www.tommycastro.com, for clips of the musicians cavorting on the road.)

The coming together of Castro, Bogart, Brooks and Magic Dick has its genesis in the like-named Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise.

That's the upscale Caribbean voyage that sets sail every winter and just recently returned to port .

During one of the cruise's late-night jam sessions, "the whole thing went on over my head like a light bulb," says Castro, 52.

"Things that happen like that on the ship just don't happen anywhere else that I know of," he adds. "It's not like being at a blues festival, where you might run into one another -- but usually only when you're coming and going."

What he remembers about those shipboard jams "is the look of such awe on everyone's faces -- I'm just in heaven."

Better yet, "Everyone knows that this is not rehearsed; it's totally spontaneous, where anything can happen. It can be brilliant or it can be a train wreck; it can be the greatest witnessing of music you've ever had, or it can just be boring."

Castro wanted to replicate on terra firma that anything-can-happen vibe of a 1 a.m. shipboard jam session.

The result, he's proud to say, is the land-locked Legendary Rhythm & Blues Tour in progress.

But don't expect much in the way of train wrecks or boredom.

The amassing of Castro and Brooks on guitar, Bogart on keyboards and sax, and Magic Dick on harmonica was a carefully orchestrated campaign itself.

"Deanna is one of the all-time great jammers, and she can make you do stuff you may not have the courage to do yourself. She'll try anything, and never do it the same way twice. I don't have the same confidence," Castro confesses.

As for Magic Dick, "We all heard that he was back out doing shows again and was getting really great buzz. We thought he'd bring that to the party," Castro continues. "Magic Dick is not a guy who does things without all the information, so he had to sort it out and evaluate it."

Finally, there's Brooks, "and that was another one who took some doing," says Castro. "He's got a lot of stuff and offers going on."

Happily, Lonnie's son made room in his schedule, "and he brings a great spirit to the jam session part of the show."

This potentially combustible union of artistic temperaments and egos has been blessed with unity, Castro reports.

"Everybody came together to do this with the least amount of ego," he adds.

Instead of each star making individual demands, the rule of thumb has been "What can I do to help make this is as good as it can be?"

Happily, Castro says, the accumulated help has added up to "an amazing show." With no shipboard pass whatsoever required.

All-star revue

The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue features:

• The Tommy Castro Band: See accompanying interview.

• Deanna Bogart: Pulling both keyboard and sax duty, this veteran has been part of seven albums, "thousands of shows" and collaborations with the likes of Ray Charles, Leon Russell, Buddy Guy and James Brown.

• Ronnie Baker Brooks: Far more than just a chip off of blues legend Lonnie Brooks' block is this blues singer-guitarist dubbed "The Crown Prince of Chicago Blues" by the city's WXRT-FM radio.

• Magic Dick: The harmonica great and former J. Geils Band member follows fellow J. Geils alum Peter Wolf into Bloomington one week later.

And special guest star

• Matthew Curry: Adding some local flavor to the night will be B-N's own 12-year-old blues sensation, the son of Paul and Patti Curry of Bloomington and a student at Bloomington Junior High School. He's scheduled to step in front of the revue for a number or two early on in the show.

At a glance
What: The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue
When: 8:30 Thursday, Feb. 7
Where: New Lafayette Club, 1602 S. Main St., Bloomington
Tickets: $25 at www.ticketweb.com