Tody Castillo has been a performing songwriter for almost two decades. The material from two previous albums, his solid eponymous 2005 release and the superb Windhorse from 2008, covered traditional songwriter’s ground - love, loss, and struggle. With a storyteller’s nuance and a designer’s eye for detail, each song revealed depths of feeling and meaning.

With this year’s new album (Title TBD), Tody Castillo has sharpened his best weapon. Adding a decade of married fatherhood to his growing list of accomplishments, there’s undeniable weight to his vocals, new grit that before was only hinted at. The observations within Nightfall Seattle and Old Rodriguez - two of the new album's best cuts - have Castillo opening in a whispering tone that quickly changes as his voice rises, higher and stronger on the chorus, only to return grounded and confessional. Castillo is blessed with pipes that make the conversational sound anthemic, and this new album is awash with this wonderful counterbalance.

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