Del Castillo to headline free block party in downtown Brownsville
Mar. 25—Del Castillo, the legendary Austin-based Latin rock, blues and jazz band from Brownsville, is returning to its hometown roots Saturday night for a one-time free concert on Levee Street called the Capitol Block Party.
City de Arte, in partnership with Friends of the National Wildlife Federation, is presenting the Capitol Block Party featuring Del Castillo on Levee Street in front of the Capitol Theater from 6-11 p.m. Other bands including Ache de Barrio, The B Side and Isaac Romero will perform, said Ana Laura Chavez of City de Arte, an organization that promotes the ongoing revival of the arts in Brownsville.
Chavez said the Capitol Block Party is envisioned as something of a public jam session, with various performers stopping by and that got its impetus from the Brownsville Latin Jazz Festival a few years ago. She said George Ramirez, the Latin Jazz Fest founder who passed in 2019, would have wanted to be at the event and would be there in spirit.
Del Castillo is expected to take the stage at 9 p.m. Admission to the Capitol Block Party is free but limited to 3,000. Registration is at eventbrite.com/e/capitol-block-party-tickets and accessible through Facebook.
Chavez said City de Arte hopes to have events similar to the one Saturday at each turn of the seasons, this one for spring and others following with the seasons. Various related events are planned this weekend in Brownsville including the 17th Brownsville Guitar Festival on Friday and free art classes for kids and teens at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art on Saturday.
Albert Besteiro, the Del Castillo bass and one of the band's founding members, said he loves returning to Brownsville. He said despite living in Austin he has been returning to the Valley for years to play music with friends in Brownsville, South Padre Island and elsewhere.
"I always look forward to going back home because I grew up there, I played baseball there, I went to church there, I went to junior college there, so it's going to a place where you know everybody where you run into people that you haven't seen in awhile at the H-E-B or Cobbleheads or wherever we're playing, and I just consider myself fortunate, all of us, to be able to do music for a living. That's a wonderful thing."
Del Castillo's website describes the band as "a cross-cultural power uniting music lovers of all ages, creeds and colors. Their original music blends rock, Latin, blues and world music into a cinematic celebration of sound that lifts your soul."
Billboard Magazine had this to say:
"Whether Del Castillo works in Spanish or English, it rocks righteously. The Spanish guitars' flamenco vibe gives a dramatic flair, abetted by Alex Ruiz's passionate vocals. They pull together Latin music's romance and rock's grit."
Besteiro reiterated how the band started, with brothers Mark and Rick del Castillo collaborating on a recording project that was originally intended as a holiday gift to their parents and family members. As accomplished electric guitarists in different bands and not having played together, they decided to join forces on acoustic nylon string guitars, creating a rich, romantic, more traditional sound in honor of the Spanish music they grew up listening to at home. The brothers invited their long time, home-town musical friends to also play on the songs and the music soon came to life. Once the album was finalized, it was titled after their namesake, "Brothers Of The Castle" (2000) and they performed their first public concert for family and friends to celebrate the release.
According to their website, "the plan was to perform 'one night only,' but the positive turnout was unlike any of their other bands. From its inception, Del Castillo became something special and soon the word spread about the new band. The more the band played, the more its audience grew. Del Castillo continued writing and recording music, building its repertoire, making more fans and quickly becoming one of Austin's most recognized bands."
Among many other credits, in 2010 Del Castillo recorded on a collaboration with Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana and Los Lonely Boys on a song called, "Claro Que Se Puede" found on the album titled "Proyecto De Amor" benefiting the non-profit Hermes Music Foundation, which provides musical instruments to the indigenous people of Mexico.
