NEWS

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• 01.26.10: KEEPING IT ‘REAL’

  Celebrated songwriter Alejandro Escovedo ruminates on life, death and everything in between
  Fans who turned out last January to see singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo perform at the WDVX-FM live radio show “Tennessee Shines” were blown away when he took the stage.
  Part of a bill that included several other artists, Escovedo and his three bandmates only played a [...]

• 01.19.10: Report: Escovedo Live NC; Talks New LP

  On Friday, January 15th at Asheville NC’s The Orange Peel Texas rocker Alejandro Escovedo took the stage to the mournful sounds of George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and proceeded to shake the room, the crowd, and even himself out of the cold gray abscess of this already harsh and short winter- all while [...]

• 01.14.10: Alejandro Escovedo and The Sensitive Boys

  Mention Alejandro Escovedo to a casual music fan, and you’ll probably get a shrug of indifference.
  But mention him to fans of punk, alt-country, blazing guitar-rock or confessional string-quartet pop, and you might get a big smile.
  And mention that the Texas-based singer/songwriter/guitarist appears Saturday at the Jewish Mother with his hard-rockin’ group, the Sensitive Boys, for [...]

• 01.10.10: Alejandro Escovedo returns to Grand Rapids for can’t-miss show

  Unbridled passion, gut-level sincerity and an extraordinary performance.
  Oh, and delivering the unexpected.
  Rock concerts that unleash these critical elements, in my mind, set themselves apart from the rest of the pack.
  It doesn’t matter if the show entertains thousands of fans or a few dozen diehards. Superstar Elton John’s mesmerizing sold-out solo appearance at Van Andel Arena [...]

• 01.10.10: Alejandro Escovedo brings `Real Animal’ tour to Cleveland’s Beachland Ballroom: Plain Dealer Podcast

  Alejandro Escovedo is the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll survivor, having lived on the ragged, cutting edge of American popular music for more than three decades. At 58, he is widely considered to be one of America’s great rock songwriters.
  On his most recent album, “Real Animal,” Escovedo teamed up with songwriting partner Chuck Prophet to create [...]

• 11.02.09: A bombastic set from Alejandro Escovedo brought down thunder at Voodoo – literally.

  Alejandro Escovedo has been through a lot over the course of a career that’s lasted nearly thirty years.  He started in the seminal punk band the Nuns, who had the distinction of opening for the Sex Pistols on their single, U.S. disastrous tour; he went on to become one of the founding fathers of alt-country [...]

• 10.13.09: Review: Alejandro Escovedo shines at the Highline

  October 13, 2009 (New York) – Alejandro Escovedo is a rock star.  Even though he may not be a household name, in a world of wannabes he’s got the goods.  On Sunday night at the Highline Ballroom on West 16th Street, sandwiched in between Texas newcomers Hacienda and headliners Los Lonely Boys, Escovedo showed the [...]

• 09.04.09: Interview: Alejandro Escovedo

  Alejandro Escovedo has been called a musician’s musician. He has played in the obscure, yet legendary bands the Nuns, Rank and File and True Believers before striking off on his own solo career. His tastes run from alt-country to glam to punk. But there is an even more serious side to the story. After collapsing [...]

• 08.21.09: Austin’s Real Animal: Alejandro Escovedo

  The San Antonio-born son of a mariachi singer grew up in California and caught acts like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Buffalo Springfield and the Doors in the Huntington Beach area where he went to high school before dropping out. He went on to become a founding member of the Nuns, a late ‘70s San [...]

• 08.02.09: Alejandro Escovedo: Not Fade Away

  If life was fair, Alejandro Escovedo would probably be dead or in jail—and he would also almost certainly be recognized as one of the greatest songwriters in the world. A last man standing of not just bands, but entire scenes and genres, Escovedo has survived nearly thirty years of near misses—with fame and death alike—to [...]

• 07.22.09: Deep Cuts: Escovedo pulls no punches as he explores life on record

  Alejandro Escovedo has been laying his heart bare in his music ever since the opening lines on his 1992 solo debut, Gravity. “Did you get your invitation? / There’s gonna be a public hanging / And the bodies will swing side by side,” he sings on album-opener “Paradise.” It’s heartwrenching the way he wraps his [...]

• 05.27.09: Alejandro Receives Two Americana Music Association Award Nominations

  Nashville, TN — The Americana Music Association announced the nominees for the trade organization’s 2009 Honors and Awards ceremony today at its annual celebration at BMI’s Nashville offices. The show, in it’s 8th year, will be held September 17 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. Legendary mandolin virtuoso Sam Bush, joined by rising star [...]

• 03.18.09: Alejandro Scores Grand Slam Home Run At Austin Music Awards

  The winners of the annual Austin Music Awards have just been announced.  Alejandro hit it out of the park and into the stratosphere.
  The awards were presented at the Austin Music Hall on March 18.  The Music Awards kick off the official beginning of the music portion of SXSW.
  1.  Musician Of The Year — Alejandro Escovedo
  2.  [...]

• 02.03.09: Alejandro Set To Perform At Bonnaroo

  Superfly Productions and A.C. Entertainment are excited to announce the initial lineup for the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.
  The eighth annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 11 – 14 on the same beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. Every year Bonnaroo seeks to make [...]

• 01.06.09: No Depression picks “Real Animal” as Number 1 Record of 2008

  AND THE WINNER IS….
  Turns out that Barack Obama wasn’t the only runaway victor Bruce Springsteen made it his personal business to champion and support in 2008. The winner of our sixth or seventh annual critics’ poll (depending on who’s counting) – and by a margin of exactly twice as many points as the closest contender [...]

• 12.26.08: And the AMP goes to …. Alejandro!

  Our panel of Austin Music Pundits overwhelmingly pick ‘Real Animal’ as the record of the year.
  If we had a Comeback of the Year category, Alejandro Escovedo would’ve won that one, too. By a landslide. Just three years ago, Escovedo was so weakened by the ravages of hepatitis C that he didn’t know if he could [...]

• 12.03.08: Stephen King’s Top 10 Albums of 2008

  Stephen King, the renowned author, is also a voracious lover of great music. He’s just released his “Top 10 Album List of 2008″ and Real Animal scores big, clocking in at number 5:
  5. Real Animal, Alejandro Escovedo
  At his best, Escovedo out-Stones the Stones, but what makes this album great are his photographic recollections of [...]

• 11.26.08: Sundown: The Rank and File Of Alejandro Escovedo

  By the time I discovered the “cowpunk” glory of Rank and File’s 1982 debut album Sundown (Slash), Alejandro Escovedo was already an artist whose music I held in high esteem.  My introduction to Escovedo and his music began in the late 90’s after he made a guest appearance on three of the songs from Whiskeytown’s [...]

• 11.17.08: Pop Life: El Maestro, Escovedo

  Sometimes it takes more than just walkin’ away to find you’ve lost. Sometimes it doesn’t take a good friend to say, “it’s just time, and it goes.” But that’s the way it goes. It’s just the way it goes.
  For those unfamiliar with the extraordinary body of work proffered by the incomparable Alejandro Escovedo, those opening [...]

• 11.11.08: The Alejandro Escovedo Trio Is Heavier Than Motorhead

  The protean Alejandro Escovedo formed his act into a power trio last night at the Birchmere. Maybe when we say power trio you think of Cream, or the Jimi Hendrix Experience, or everybody’s favorite, Beck, Bogert and Appice. And yeah, this amalgam was just as thundering, only it was just Al on acoustic, Dave Pulkingham [...]

• 10.25.08: Alejandro Escovedo’s every-night breakthrough

  If you’re familiar with the pre-dot-com history of No Depression, you likely already know how far my own musical history goes back with Alejandro Escovedo. If not, this should give you some idea. It was ten years ago that Grant Alden and I declared him our Artist of the Decade for the 1990s; I wrote [...]

• 10.22.08: Alejandro Escovedo Releasing Live EP

  Known for his enigmatic and engaging live shows, Texas rocker Alejandro Escovedo will release a live EP LIVE ANIMAL on November 11, 2008, featuring a selection of stellar tracks from his latest release REAL ANIMAL (EMI/Manhattan/Back Porch).  A masterful storyteller, Escovedo blends introspective ballads with shattering blasts of punk rock and string quintets.  On LIVE [...]

• 10.19.08: Singer-guitarist Is Finally Getting the Recognition He Deserves, October 15, 2008

  Veteran Austin-based singer-guitarist Alejandro Escovedo has persevered through three decades of rough-and-tumble rock ‘n’ roll and lived to make an album about it. He’s seen his ballyhooed punk / garage bands the Nuns, Rank and File, and the True Believers come and go. He’s also eluded death after a really bad bout with hepatitis. All [...]

• 10.14.08: Alejandro Escovedo’s Animal Instincts, October 14, 2008

  Alejandro Escovedo is a man of many encores. He was a punk rocker whose band The Nuns opened the final concert ever played by the Sex Pistols in the late ’70s. Then he was a member of the seminal cow-punk outfit Rank and File, hopped over to guitar-drenched rock with True Believers and then began [...]

• 10.01.08: ALEJANDRO AT THE CROSSROADS, October 1, 2008

  From an encore performance of his “Always a Friend” in Houston with Bruce Springsteen to a performance of “People” at the Democratic National Convention, Alejandro Escovedo has been more publicly prominent at age 57 than at any time in his long career. Not bad for a guy virtually given up for dead five years ago, [...]