Story and photos by Joel Langton
Video by Lou Zylka
The 830 Times
Four bands entertained nearly 500 people at the first San Felipe Jam at La Rambla venue on the San Felipe Creek Saturday night.
The event was produced by Juan Mireles, a singer and local
teacher, who wanted to show Del Rio that there is a lot of talent in the community.
“This event was all about Del Rio,” he told the audience. “The bands and musicians are all from Del Rio, the sound and lighting is from Del Rio, all of the vendors are from Del Rio. As I said, this is all about Del Rio.”
The Del Rio musicians rocked the Del Rio audience with a solid four hours of music, with songstress Madison Hailey kicking things off with a 45-minute set followed by Clifton Castle and his band On the Fly.
Next up was Mireles, playing under the name La Historia de un Juan, singing his collection of Spanish love songs.
If the event was about Del Rio, few bands can show off more Del
Rio cred than than the trio of brothers who make up Family Jewelz. They have been playing in the community since the trio was 5-years-old. Now they have all graduated from college, and one has children of his own, who was dancing in front of the stage to dad’s music.
No matter if people were on the stage or in the crowd, they loved the hours of local music.
“It was a lot of fun with the music and atmosphere, you can’t beat it and the weather cooperated,” said David Ortiz, who sat through every note from beginning to end. “You can’t beat the venue, and I hope they do it more often.”
The bands had as much fun as the fans. “Everything was very well done, great sound, great lights and from the musician’s side of it, everything was very well organized,” said Buddy Laing, who due to his prowess on the keyboards, was asked to play with two of the bands.
Mireles was ecstatic minutes after Family Jewels played their last note of the night and is following Ortiz’s advice with plans for the future.
“We are looking at scaling it down in July and offer two or three artists on three Saturday evenings,” he said. “The turnout tonight was so good, we may have to limit the number of tickets we sell just to keep it manageable and ensure everyone is able to have a good time.”
