After gigging relentlessly throughout the nineties and two-thousands, he unveiled his self-titled debut, Tody Castillo, in 2004. It translated the horsepower of “getting in the van and playing shows” into fourteen tunes. 2009’s Windhorse saw him grapple with the passing of his brother. Simultaneously, he relocated from Houston to Austin with his wife and two sons. Not long after, he began to write songs for what would become Old Rodriguez.

It just so happened, life twisted and turned in a different direction…

“When you have babies, it naturally slows your roll,” he explains. “I was only taking gigs here and there, and we had our third son. I was running out of gas to put out another project on my own. I did the last two by myself without a label. If you do this gig long enough, you realize you need help to properly release music. Being a dad takes a lot of time too. I gave myself permission to let go of some of the gigs I’d been doing since 1994. I focused on raising my boys and writing. 13 years went by even though I kept recording here and there.”

Producing the album himself, he recorded with GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer Steve Christensen [Steve Earle, Robert Ellis, Khruangbin, Paul McCartney] joined by drummer Falcon Valdez [The Hold Steady, Ian Moore, The Happen-Ins], top notch keyboard player and record producer, Eddy Hobizal [Christopher Cross], and late great bassist and record producer George Reiff [Courtyard Hounds, Jakob Dylan, Joe Walsh]. Eventually, Old Rodriguez landed in the hands of Strolling Bones who signed Tody in 2021 with a plan to release not only this latest LP, but also properly re-release Tody Castillo and Windhorse.

Fast forward to 2022, he introduces Old Rodriguez with the single “March For Miles.” Drawing inspiration from his grandfather's life and stories as a young soldier on the South Pacific front during WWII, the track’s narrative is wrapped in a timeless guitar hook and simmering beat, as his voice quivers, “And you came straight from the war.”

“It’s about WWII and all of the guys who were drafted and shipped off to war,” he explains. “Thematically, it chronicles a young man’s journey. Musically, it’s a straight-ahead rocker.”

Plaintive acoustic guitar and piano underscore “What It Means To Be A Man” as he confesses, “My thoughts take me down a darker road. I do my best not to let it get out of control.”

“It deals with depression, anxiety, and the dad pressure of being in charge of a big family and needing to get to work,” he reveals. “The bridge is about never giving up your dreams.”

“Airstreamer” sees him pack up and leave Texas for New York in the late nineties. “I said goodbye to my family and friends and moved away to New York for the first time,” he recalls. “It pays homage to my late brother too. It was the start of the journey to finding myself. The song was perfect for the theme, and it really connects Windhorse and Old Rodriguez.”

Then, there’s “Highway 59.” A hummable distorted guitar revs up the track as his voice crescendos with the ebb and flow of the drums before breaking into an understated melodic bridge.

“It’s another one about becoming a dad,” he states. “My family and I were living in a little apartment complex off Highway 59 in Houston. It was a pretty intense period. It’s the moment where everything in your life changes.”

“Old Rodriguez” hinges on a delicately plucked melody as his delivery flutters throughout the retelling of a cinematic story.

“It rewinds to my grandfather’s last days,” he goes on. “It also flashes back to the South Pacific during the War. My grandfather was a glider volunteer, where they would crash land big gliders with supplies into the war zones. I thought the story was so nuts.”

In the end, Tody’s time is right now.

“I’m 47, and I just got a record deal,” he smiles. “I was recently giving some 23-year-old kid advice at the local skatepark. I’ve had a passion and desire to get that since the beginning. I never dropped the desire. I sat on this record, because I knew it was too good for me just to put out on my own. I didn’t give up. I hung on. My message is to never compromise. When you hear this, I hope it feels good and hits close to home. I want it to mean something to you.”