He's hardly a household name, except in very cool households.
Yet Alejandro Escovedo sure ought to be.
Alejandro Escovedo has made a reputation as one of roots music's best songwriters.
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He's been around since the 1970s, playing in bands like the Nuns, Rank and File and True Believers, and “Real Animal” is the latest in a long-running line of his solo albums dating back to 1992.
It's also a gorgeous, evocative and autobiographical work, richly detailing the captivating life and times of the songwriter, who in the 1990s was famously named “Artist of the Decade” by alt-country bible No Depression – two years before the decade had even ended.
Escovedo co-wrote all 13 songs here with Green on Red's Chuck Prophet, and the album was produced by Tony Visconti, best known for his work with acts including T. Rex and David Bowie.
“Real Animal” offers a wild mix of styles, from raw-edged fury (the song “Real as an Animal” is an homage to Iggy Pop and other rock 'n' roll animals); to harmonica-wailin' blues (“People,” “We're Only Gonna Live So Long”); from chamber pop beauties about his youth in California (“Swallows of San Juan”) to flat-out punk, like the song recalling his first band, “Nuns Song.”
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Alejandro Escovedo
“Real Animal”
Back Porch/Manhattan
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The writing is passionate, the singing is pure and melodic and whether he's tearin' it up or working with strings, the effect is consistently mesmerizing.
You can smoke my smoke, drink my wine, bury my snakeskin boots somewhere I'll never find, Escovedo sings in the opening “Always a Friend,” which he penned for his wife, poet Kim Christoff, and which sounds slightly like the latter day-more expansive offerings of the E Street Band. Indeed, there's a great clip you can find on YouTube of Escovedo playing the song with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
Rock historians will likely be intrigued by “Chelsea,” which details Escovedo's days living at New York City's fabled Chelsea Hotel at the same time as Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious resided there with his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, and when Spungen was murdered there in October 1978.
At 57, Escovedo has lived a lot of lives and each one is fascinating. It was time for an autobiography and that he turned it into an album is our good fortune. Whether you want to get lost in his heart-tugging balladry (“Slow Down” or “Sensitive Boys”) or revel in the rock 'n' roll soul that he stirs up in songs like the guitar-busting rhythms of “Smoke,” there's a lot to be discovered here.
