Alejandro Escovedo--Live & In Studio

This April I had the privilege of seeing Alejandro Escovedo perform at the Tarrytown Music Hall. He performed along with guitarist David Pulkingham, one of the Sensitive Boys, his touring band. I expected it to be a good show, but I was amazed at what a fantastic live performer he is. He definitely is an artist not to be missed, one of the great unappreciated modern American songwriters. There were sublime moments such as his performance of Rosalie, from his "Hand of the Father" collaborative project plus uptempo intense moments like Always A Friend, from his album "Real Animal". He also included songs from Street Songs of Love his upcoming album. He and Pulkingham really complemented each other on guitars, collaborating together to leave the audience enraptured. He also had a funny, likable stage presence. The icing on the cake was the encore performance, when Ian Hunter came on stage and traded verses with Alejandro on his classic "I Wish I Was Your Mother", which can actually be seen on Youtube. Graham Parker was the opener, who provided a solo set with both old songs plus songs from his brand new album "Imaginary Television".

I just picked up the new cd yesterday, and I have to say it is very good. Very uptempo, harder rocking than his other albums, but poppier than his Buick McKane band. The album definitely has a lot of the intensity that bowled me over at his live performance. And all love songs. From the  very first spin, I enjoyed it. A lot of the songs were written with ex-Green on Red's Chuck Prophet. There are also cameo appearances by Ian Hunter (down in the Bowery) & Bruce Springsteen (Faith). I thought the addition of the backup vocalists really helped bring this album, sometimes like a 50's song, in other cases like on Silver Cloud backups reminiscent of Mink DeVille. The album seems kind of radio-ready, but that really is not something that I can find that much of a problem with--if it means that more people will find out about his music and come to shows, more power to him. While Boxing Mirror & Real Animal seemed to be dealing with the past--self-analyzing & nostalgic, this album kind of feels like a forward departure. I particularly liked "Anchor", the strong lead track, the aforementioned "silver cloud", "this bed is getting crowded", "down in the bowery" & the lovely ballad "after the meteor showers". "Faith" is also a good rocker with tough lyrics. If you love straight ahead rock n roll & good songwriting you can't go wrong with this. If you like this you will probably want to hear all his music, even back to the days when he was in the Nuns & the fantastic country punk band Rank & File. I'm hoping that Escovedo comes to New York soon, because it was probably the best show I've seen in Tarrytown, & that includes Richard Thompson & Calexico.