Community plans second line tribute at Garage Café
The Magic City will pause this weekend to remember Rickie Castrillo, the guitarist who relocated to Birmingham after Hurricane Katrina and became a familiar presence on the local live-music circuit. Close friends have organized a second line parade and an open gathering at the Garage Café to celebrate his life and career.
Doors at the Garage Café on 10th Terrace South will open at 4 p.m. Sunday for friends and fans to share memories, play songs and participate in the second line procession, longtime friend and Birmingham attorney Thomas Diasio said. The event is modeled on the New Orleans tradition in which friends, family and neighbors walk through neighborhood streets behind live musicians to honor someone who has died.
From New Orleans stages to Birmingham bars
Castrillo, who died July 4 at the age of 80, built a wide-ranging career in New Orleans before relocating to Birmingham after the 2005 storms. His obituary and friends’ accounts trace a musical life that began when he was given his first guitar at age 7 and included decades on notable stages.
He graduated from F.T. Nicholls High School and served in the Louisiana National Guard. For 25 years he worked as backstage manager and MC at Tipitina’s, the storied New Orleans venue, and over the years performed with and knew artists from Dr. John to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Stéphane Grappelli. On his 21st birthday, he played with B.B. King, according to his obituary.
When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, Castrillo was among roughly 20,000 people who arrived in Birmingham with the few possessions they could carry. He later described the moment he realized the scope of the storm’s destruction:
“I saw the people stuck on the roofs and all the people who didn’t have a way out,” Castrillo recalled. “I started to cry.”
In Birmingham he quickly returned to performing, picking up early gigs with Jimmy Watson at the Garage and with Marty Eagle at Marty’s Bar on the Southside. Castrillo told an interviewer in 2015 that when Watson said the only night without music was Monday, he asked for that night and “I said, ‘Give me Monday and I’ll bring them in.’ I did that for six or seven years.”
Local impact and the culture he carried with him
Castrillo is remembered by friends and fellow musicians for carrying New Orleans musical traditions to Birmingham stages—bringing repertoire, musical relationships and the communal style of performances familiar to Gulf Coast audiences. His role as a connector, both onstage and behind the scenes at venues, made him a recognizable figure to multiple generations of players and patrons.
Sunday’s gathering at the Garage Café provides an opportunity for those who knew him in Birmingham to mark his passing in a manner rooted in the culture he helped sustain. The second line format — a public, musical procession — is itself a continuation of the traditions Castrillo championed throughout his life.
- When: Doors open at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Garage Café
- Where: Garage Café, 10th Terrace South, Birmingham
- Who: Friends, family and fellow musicians will lead a second line parade and share memories
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Age at death | 80 |
| Date of death | July 4 |
| Notable previous role | Backstage manager and MC at Tipitina’s (25 years) |
| High school | F.T. Nicholls High School |
For Birmingham residents who remember Castrillo’s sets at local venues or who came to know him after Katrina, the Garage Café event is a chance to honor a musician who carried a long musical history with him and left an imprint on the city’s nightlife. The second line will be both an expression of grief and a public celebration of the sounds and friendships he helped foster.
