In his almost 75 years, Alejandro Escovedo has lived an incredible life that has taken him all over to the country and allowed him to be a part of some of the most important scenes in the development of contemporary music. Over 50 years of making music, he’s jumped from genre to genre: punk to alt-country to glam-rock, and, for more than 30 years, he’s been a celebrated singer-songwriter. In his recent solo at The Hamilton Live, Escovedo went deep on an intimate night of songs and stories.
Alejandro comes from a family of musicians. His father played in mariachi and swing bands, and of his 13 children, eight became professional musicians. His older brothers, Pete and Coke, were jazz musicians who both had stints with the iconic rock band Santana. His younger brother Javier founded the LA punk band the Zeros, and later, with Alejandro the short-lived but much-loved True Believers. Another younger brother, Mario, played hard rock with the Dragons. The musical legacy has continued with the next generation, as Pete’s daughter, Sheila, became a pop star as Sheila E., in addition to playing with Prince.
Although he came from a family with a rich musical heritage, Escovedo says he never wanted to be a musician. Instead, he wanted to be a filmmaker, growing up idolizing the New Wave films coming from France and Germany. It was through film that Alejandro first tackled music. When he was living in San Francisco in the ’70s, he and some friends made a film about a punk band. Because their budget was minimal, and, inspired by the Sex Pistols’ final show at the Winterland, they cast themselves as the band, the Nuns, filming at a music venue during its daylight off-hours. Escovedo is self-deprecating about this band’s abilities, saying, “If you clapped for the Nuns, you must not have heard us play.” Reflecting on this band and this period in his life, Escovedo began his set with “Nun Song,” singing through a mic that created a distortion effect suited to the mood and content of the piece, at The Hamilton Live on April 26.
With the Nuns, Alejandro relocated to New York City, where he lived in the famed Chelsea Hotel at the tail end of its glory days as home for the City’s artistic and bohemian community. (Residents in the ’60s and ’70s included Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, and Patti Smith.) He shared his remembrances of this time and place with “Chelsea Hotel ’78.” His life would intersect again with the Sex Pistols here, as this was when Sid Vicious notoriously murdered his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, in that building.
Watch Alejandro Escovedo perform “Chelsea Hotel ’78” live for WNRN on YouTube:
Winding it back to his time in San Francisco, Escovedo talked about how he lived with his girlfriend in “transient hotels” and played “Sacramento & Polk.” When the weather turned good, the mental institutions would release patients into the community, and they would take up residence in these same hotels where he was living.
After these first three songs, Alejandro swapped out his electric for an acoustic guitar, which he played for the remainder of his set. He dedicated his first acoustic number, the instrumental “Heartbreak,” to Stephen Bruton, who produced his first three solo albums. Bruton, who passed away from throat cancer in 2009, got his big break playing in Kris Kristofferson’s band, and went on to produce albums for a number of roots music luminaries, including Chris Smither, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Marcia Ball, and Hal Ketchum.
Escovedo continued the set with the devastating “Five Hearts Breaking,” from his debut, Gravity, followed by “Wave,” from 2001’s A Man Under the Influence. While his ’90s work had earned him significant critical acclaim, he had met with limited commercial success, and it was with this album that he started to pick up steam. Alejandro spoke of working up to 250 dates a year on the road, which took a toll on his body. Eventually, back in Austin following the tour, he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C.
What followed for more than a decade was a harrowing medical odyssey. At one point, Alejandro collapsed after a show and was rushed t the ER, where he was told he had cirrhosis of the liver and an abdominal bleed. One doctor put him on an extremely powerful drug called Interferon, which he said was even worse than the disease, and was “eating my bone marrow.” After years of struggling with the disease, with new medical advancements, a doctor finally prescribed a course of treatment in 2014 that cleared the infection from his body.
Escovedo admitted he wasn’t the best patient when it came to taking care of himself. He thought that a glass a wine and a joint would ease his pain and stress, but a single glass became a few glasses, and a few glasses became a case. Around this same time, he was dealing with the death of his father at the age of 97. With all this going on, he paired up with John Cale, who had played in the Velvet Underground to make his 2006 album The Boxing Mirror.
Alejandro described Cale as an imposing figure, owing to his stature with the Velvets, as well as his formal training in music. Originally from Wales, Cale came to study music in America on a Leonard Bernstein scholarship. He was tutored by the legendary avant-garde composer John Cage and became something of his chosen successor.
Despite his imposing stature, Escovedo described Cale with great affection and tenderness, even describing him as something of a “father figure.” Cale pushed him to reach deeper inside himself on The Boxing Mirror, and Alejandro credits him for helping find new emotional depths in his work.
In 2018, he released his latest album of original work, The Crossing. Inspired by his own life and the immigrant stories of his family, it’s a concept album, a sort of rock opera about a pair of teens, one from Italy and one from Mexico, who meet as dishwashers in a restaurant in Texas. They bond over their love for punk rock, and together they travel through America. Alejandro made the album with Italian band Don Antonio, who he bonded with during a tour of Europe. “Something Blue” explores the poverty the two discover as they move about the country.
Watch Alejandro Escovedo perform “Something Blue” live for CBS This Morning Saturday Sessions on YouTube:
As his set was rounding out, Escovedo brought things back to the place he was born with “San Antonio Rain.” He ended the set with “Always A Friend,” and talked about one of his coolest experiences in the music business. For a time, he was managed by John Landau, who also managed Bruce Springsteen. While he was living in Wimberley, in the Hill Country outside of Austin, he got a call that the Boss was playing in Houston and wanted to do this song with him. It was an intimidating experience, putting him in front of the largest crowd he’d ever played to.
The audience got a special treat in the opener, a fantastic singer-songwriter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Jeffrey Gaines. Gaines is a seasoned vet of the music business, having been signed to Chrysalis Records in 1990, and he’s shared stages with folks like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, who he opened for in Europe. Gaines is a true pro, a guy who knows how to connect with an audience in whatever environment he’s playing. He has powerful and gorgeous voice that served him well whether on originals, like “Come Out Tonight,” “Falling Apart,” “Beyond the Beginning” (which he described as a “post-coital composition”), “Beyond the Beginning,” “A Simple Prayer” (which was influenced by Billy Jack films), “Headmasters of Mine,” “I Know A Man,” and “Safety In Self” (a response to his mother’s passing in 1993),” or on the diverse covers (Elvis Costello’s “Riot Act,” Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” and David Bowie’s “Five Years.”)
I’d never seen Jeffrey before and he really impressed me. Alejandro, of course, was excellent, a spellbinding singer and storyteller who had the audience in his hand all night.
Here are some photos of Alejandro Escovedo performing live at The Hamilton Live on April 26, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of David LaMason.
Here are some photos of Jeffrey Gaines opening Alejandro Escovedo at The Hamilton Live on April 26, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of David LaMason.
