ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO & THE SENSITIVE BOYSTuesday, January 25 - 8pm. $30
Avalon Theatre - Easton, MD
Box Office: 410.822.7299
www.avalontheatre.com
www.alejandroescovedo.com
There are aging rock stars whose best days are behind them, and then there's the curious case of Alejandro Escovedo.
Escovedo's rise has been gradual; a steady incline rather than a quick ascendance. His tireless touring and dogged determination to place one album after another has taken him through many musical scenes, remaining the same persona within each, of an artist who doesn’t settle for the easy way out. And his music shows no sign of mellowing, either. With the exception of Bruce Springsteen, who guests on Escovedo's new album, Street Songs of Love, few guys hovering around age 60 still rock this hard.
Rolling Stone's David Fricke went as far as to include Escovedo's latest release in his annual "Fricke's Picks: Best of..." list.
Alejandro Escovedo has had one of the more varied careers in music. In the late-’70s, Escovedo was a member of the San Francisco punk band the Nuns, followed by several excellent, under-the-radar solo records, and a near-fatal battle with Hepatitis C. But now, finally, his latest release showcases a stronger Escovedo, looking and sounding like a man who has fought to achieve his current position and has no intention of relinquishing it.
Escovedo opened for friends Los Lonely Boys at the Avalon during the fall of 2009, putting on a performance that had the near capacity crowd begging for more. His performance with his band The Sensitive Boys takes place on Tuesday, Jan. 25th at 8pm. Tickets are still available via the Avalon Box Office.
“You just do your good work, and people care,” Alejandro says of his heavy touring and recording habits. “I always believed, when I was a kid, that if you just worked hard, you would find fulfillment. I think I got a lot of that from my father, and my brothers. A working musician is all I ever wanted to be. Hard work, to stay true to what you want to do, and then eventually someone would notice for that very reason.”
Born in San Antonio in 1951, he was one of twelve kids. Many of his siblings are also musicians (his niece is Sheila E., while two brothers have played with Santana), as was his father. In 1957 the family moved from Texas, where he’d heard the beginnings of rock, country, and some blues. When they arrived in California, he was exposed to a wealth of surf music, Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, and much more.
But it was in Austin, where he returned in the mid-1980s, that Alejandro found a musical geography that matched his own eclectic sense of musical possibility. “It was this place that was completely open. The community really supported the musicians. It was small enough that you knew everybody there. You could see Townes Van Zandt walking around, or go to some beer garden and hear Billy Joe Shaver, or catch the Vaughan brothers playing every night at some place."
A large part of the credit for the collaborative feel of 'Street Songs’ must go to the Sensitive Boys, Alejandro’s core band. “I love my band,” he says. “Without them, I’d feel very alone.” Hector Munoz has been his drummer for twenty three years, while David Pulkingham has played guitar with Escovedo for the past seven years (he also played all the keyboards on the new album). “We had fourteen songs tracked in the first four days; we were just ripping through them, totally in the zone." Thus became Street Songs of Love.
Born in San Antonio in 1951, he was one of twelve kids. Many of his siblings are also musicians (his niece is Sheila E., while two brothers have played with Santana), as was his father. In 1957 the family moved from Texas, where he’d heard the beginnings of rock, country, and some blues. When they arrived in California, he was exposed to a wealth of surf music, Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, and much more.
But it was in Austin, where he returned in the mid-1980s, that Alejandro found a musical geography that matched his own eclectic sense of musical possibility. “It was this place that was completely open. The community really supported the musicians. It was small enough that you knew everybody there. You could see Townes Van Zandt walking around, or go to some beer garden and hear Billy Joe Shaver, or catch the Vaughan brothers playing every night at some place."
A large part of the credit for the collaborative feel of 'Street Songs’ must go to the Sensitive Boys, Alejandro’s core band. “I love my band,” he says. “Without them, I’d feel very alone.” Hector Munoz has been his drummer for twenty three years, while David Pulkingham has played guitar with Escovedo for the past seven years (he also played all the keyboards on the new album). “We had fourteen songs tracked in the first four days; we were just ripping through them, totally in the zone." Thus became Street Songs of Love.
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