A soulful roots-rocker survivor shares insights from a new CD at City Winery.
“I’m a hungry man,” Alejandro Escovedo proclaims on Street Songs of Love, a new album out Tuesday 29 on Fantasy. It’s both declaration and behest—not just to a lover but also to life’s unknowns, sweetnesses and torments alike. He’s seen plenty of the latter recently: Now 59, Escovedo is only a couple of years out of a lengthy battle with hepatitis C that nearly killed him. And though he’s among America’s most critically lauded musicians, this man and his 35-year career still fly largely under mainstream radar.
Still, at a recent Sirius XM recording session, Escovedo didn’t seem fazed. Exquisitely turned out in a flowing cravat and gleaming roach-killer shoes, he had a sage, sensual, larger-than-life presence. He and his Sensitive Boys, including longtime collaborators David Pulkingham on guitar and Hector Muñoz on drums, hit song after song with the synchronous force of waves on the beach at Waimea. Escovedo’s grit-and-honey voice sounded flawless.
On Street Songs of Love, his tenth solo album, Escovedo continues his multidecade wrestling match with loss and desire, creation and failure, and perhaps most important, survival. Produced by Tony Visconti and featuring appearances by Bruce Springsteen and Ian Hunter, it’s an irresistible blast of Tejano-influenced punk-blues-rock—the work of a man at the height of his game. He may have accrued “more miles than money,” but Escovedo continues to forge a compelling element in America’s musical canon.
By Kate Crane – Time Out New York - http://newyork.timeout.com/