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Record stores across the Rio Grande Valley will unite for Sabado Gigante, a record store festival showcasing the diversity of Valley vinyl stores and to pay tribute to Arnaldo Villarreal Ramírez, who is best known as Mr. Falcon, a trailblazer in regional music.
Sabado Gigante, hosted by Sonido Publico, has its inaugural record store fest Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m. at Depósito: El Nopalito located at 610 North Main Street in McAllen.
Founder of Sonido Publico and Depósito: El Nopalito, owner Genesis Moreno said he hopes this is just the beginning for Sabado Gigante.
Depósito: El Nopalito opened in 2021 and is a neighborhood wine shop focused on celebrating community and championing local projects. Sonido Publico is a creative collective that promotes music from the border.
“We wanted to highlight our RGV record shops since people come through and look at our shelves and ask if we’re a record shop,” Moreno said. “I started realizing there’s a need and a want to know where to buy records in the Valley.”
Talking about the topic, he said people only knew of one or two shops which inspired him to make the one-day record store fest to show people what the Valley record community looks like.
The record stores featured in the fest range from Pharr Out Records with their selection of Tejano, Conjunto and other regional music, Weslaco’s Deadstock Bodega with rap/hip-hop to Vinyl Spinning Magic from Brownsville with 80’s records.
The other stores featured include Groove Garden in McAllen, Mingos Music & More in Weslaco, 4 Ever Memories in San Benito and Frank’s Collections in Harlingen.
FronteraWave will provide Lo-Fi Tex-Mex music for the event with each record store having time to spin some of their vinyls to showcase their sound to attendees.
The event will also include food from Ana Liz Taqueira, coffee from Black Honey Coffee & Bakery and wine from Depósito: El Nopalito.
Featured on the event poster, made by Tree Haus Creative Studios, is a falcon sitting on a cactus with a vinyl record in its talon. The symbolism is to highlight Mr. Falcon, the founder of independent recording company Falcon Records in McAllen.
Ramírez, who was also mayor of his hometown of Mission from 1973 until 1981, started the recording company in 1948. Falcon Records helped introduce and spread Conjunto, ranchera and other regional music across the Southwest. By 1980, Falcon records included seven labels.
In 2009, Ramírez was inducted into the Texas Conjunto Hall of Fame in San Benito for his contributions to Tejano music.
With Moreno growing up in south McAllen and attending after school programs, a music director of his would often show students local music. Taking an interest at a young age, Moreno’s teacher took him to the Falcon Records building.
“From a really young age it really stuck with me the fact that Falcon Records was located literally right here and not a lot of people really knew that or recognized the history behind the label,” he said.
In the planning stages of the event Moreno asked himself what is the best way to represent Tex-Mex border music and he said a tribute to Mr. Falcon would be a great way to blend the history of the region and the cultural elements together.
He added that he hopes the festival becomes a yearly event and that it can continue honoring the former music labels and influential figures that helped shape the Valley’s music history.
For updates on the event and information on future events, follow @nopalito.us and @sonido.publico on Instagram.
