Writing Alejandro Back In

Alejandro Escovedo
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro NC
October 23rd, 2008

I have a strange and checkered Alejandro-past. I first heard of Alejandro Escovedo from his cameo on the Whiskeytown "Stranger's Alamnac" album. (You know, he sang part of "Excuse Me For Breaking My Own Heart". Awesome song!) From there I heard his name a lot online and in No Depression, etc. This was during the time of his very scary, life-threatening illness a few years ago. At this point, his outlook was very bleak. Deathly ill, unable to work, no insurance, no income. Bleak.

I grabbed a couple of his albums, a tribute album to him, "Por Vida", and just tried to keep up with the Alejandro news. To be honest, I didn't know how to feel. The poor guy seemed to be dying, and a lot of people who I really admired -- like Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary -- really admired him. It was obvious that he was well-respected. And dying. And I just didn't like his albums.

Okay... I liked some of the songs. But I didn't love them. And I felt guilty. Shouldn't I love this stuff? He sang on "Stranger's Alamanac" for God's sake! It's one of my favorite all-time albums! Shouldn't I love this cameo-singing dude? He's freaking dying! Well, I tried.

Then he got better! And then he put out another album! And then he played a show at the Cat's Cradle! And some unfortunate people scheduled his show and Thad Cockrell and Caitlin Cary's CD release party for "Begonias" on the same night. Well, I was going to see Thad & Caitlin, no question. More guilt. Then someone wised up and put the shows together. Whew!

Thad and Caitlin took the stage first and played the hell out of that fantastic album, "Begonias." What a wonderful performance! And then Alejandro got up and played.

Now, I was expecting a Whiskeytown-esque singer/songwriter, country and rock, you know? Or maybe a kick-ass Texas Rock outfit, but with great songwriting. This was his come-back-from-the-dead tour, and he was a legendary name, and I expected to get my ass kicked in all those good ways. And I didn't. I was severely underwhelmed. If I remember correctly, I left after the third or fourth excruciatingly long and slow song.

His music back then was melancholy and textured. It was synthesizer heavy. I swear I think he had a cello player in the band that night. It was freaking weird. It was probably really, really good, but it was so outside of what I was expecting, my poor little brain just couldn't comprehend it. I was expecting a high-energy "just glad to be alive" sound, but no. Nothing of the sort.

So basically I wrote Alejandro off that night. And yes, I felt guilty. I didn't "get" him, and I felt pretty ashamed.

Now, skip ahead a few years, and enter stage-left my beautiful wife. She's a pretty big Alejandro fan and is fairly incredulous that I was so ambivalent about him. She lets it slide.... at first.

Alejandro comes to Carrboro/Chapel Hill last night, and she gets us tickets, bless her. I'm happy to go, but not crazy excited. Is he going to have more strange, melancholy music? We'll see.

First off, the crowd is an older one. And for a Thursday night, it's a pretty darn old crowd. The median age was in the upper 40s... most folks in their 50s. No worries, at almost thirty-three, I'm used to being the youngest dude in the crowd at most of these gigs. (That's definitely how it was at the AMA conference last month!)

The opening act... wow, what a mediocre opening act! The "Silk Peaches" or whatever they were called... they were just unfortunate. I feel bad for them. Do they play well together? Practiced until they're a tight band? Definitely. You can tell they care. They just sounded... well, bland. They sounded like dozens of other bands I've heard. Nothing new there at all. I hope they find their gimmick, their unique voice, because I sure didn't hear it last night. This was not boding well for Alejandro.

Okay, so how did the show go? It was pretty damn good! Alejandro didn't make me a rabid fan last night, but he definitely heated up my previously lukewarm opinion of him. His band last night was very stripped down -- just a standard rock quartet. There was a lot of electric guitar, it was loud and brash, and rolled along pretty darn well. Except for a short string of acoustic songs and ballads in the middle that severely dropped the energy for a while, the concert was very up-beat.

The song he recently played at the Democratic National Convention, "People (We’re Only Gonna Live So Long)," from his new album "Real Animal" kicked some serious ass! His other big song was "Castanets" -- "I like her better when she walks away!" I'd heard that one several times before, and I've always like it. Most of the other songs I was unfamiliar with, but liked quite a bit. The newer songs, from "Real Animal", seemed to be my favorites.

The highlight of the show, energy-wise, was definitely the two covers he played in the encore -- David Bowie's "All The Young Dudes" and the Stones' "Beast of Burden." That's a telling statement for a singer-songwriter, that his covers were some of the best performances. I felt that he was looser with those songs, letting himself have more fun with them. He dropped his super-serious "badass songwriter facade" and had fun with us... and I liked that a lot. He should find a way to put that sense of humor in more of his own songs. I think that's why I like "Castanets" so much.

During the last two songs he had Lynn Blakey of the Tres Chicas and previously of Gloryfountain on stage to sing backup. They had a funny little flirty thing going during "Beast of Burden" that was a lot of fun. Alejandro dropped the guitar during that one and worked the stage like a lounge singer, pouring his heart out into the microphone. Lots and lots of fun.

So, bottom-line... I'll see him again. I'll definitely try to get some time in on that new album, and I've written-off my writing-off of Alejandro. He's back on the books.