Austin-based songwriter Tody Castillo announces a new record entitled Old Rodriguez will be released on April 8 via Strolling Bones Records. Castillo produced the album himself and recorded the songs with Grammy Award-winning engineer Steve Christensen (Steve Earle, Robert Ellis, Khruangbin, Paul McCartney). He’s released a video for the first single, “March for Miles,” a narrative, guitar-lead track inspired by his grandfather’s time as a glider volunteer in the South Pacific during WWII.
Watch “March for Miles” Official Video
Preorder and presave Old Rodriguez
“This song is about a young man off to war during WWII” explains Castillo. “He is longing to come home, and hoping that his lady friend will wait for him. It’s a look back at the style of the 40’s, and the way things were made back then. It’s also a dream of being there with my loved ones,” he continues. “Thematically, it chronicles a young man’s journey. Musically, it’s a straight-ahead rocker.”
Fatherhood, cross-country road trips, wartime stories passed from one generation to the next and philosophical skatepark conversations stitch together the fabric of Old Rodriguez. On his first body of work in 13 years, the Kingsville-born and Austin-based singer and songwriter ponders the past, present and future across ten tracks. He began work on Old Rodriguez in 2009, recording with Grammy Award-winning engineer Steve Christensen (Steve Earle, Robert Ellis, Khruangbin, Paul McCartney); the album was finished and mastered twice by 2014, yet Castillo felt it best to let the material sit until it felt ready. Eventually, Old Rodriguez landed in the hands of Strolling Bones who signed Castillo in 2021 with a plan to release not only this latest LP, but also properly re-release Tody Castillo and Windhorse.
“I sat on this record, because I knew it was too good for me just to put out on my own.” says Castillo. “I’m 47, and I just got a record deal… I’ve had a passion and desire to get that since the beginning.”
Old Rodriguez track list:
1. Airstreamer
2. March For Miles
3. What It Means To Be A Man
4. Old Rodriguez
5. Landlocked
6. Highway 59
7. 10 People
8. Waving Through The Window
9. Nightfall Seattle
10. Do You Ever Get The Feeling
