Alejandro Escovedo - "A Man Under the Influence"

25 years ago today, Alejandro Escovedo released “A Man Under the Influence.” The 50-year-old Texas songwriter had built a storied career, founding early punk band The Nuns (‘75-79), after which he co-founded two ‘cow-punk’ (later termed ‘alt-country’) bands: Rank and File, then True Believers, before going solo in ‘91. By the end of the nineties No Depression magazine had crowned him Artist of the Decade. Produced by and featuring Chris Stamey (The dB’s) this, Alejandro’s 5th solo studio album, earned excellent reviews including an 8.3 of 10 score by Pitchfork. Other personnel include Eric Heywood, Mitch Easter, Mike Daly, Hector Muñoz, Caitlin Cary + Ryan Adams. Fan-favorite songs include ‘Wave’ ‘Rosalie’ ‘Castanets’ ‘About This Love’ + ‘Velvet Guitar.’ Cover art by Dana Lee Smith. More in Comments.

This week’s New Releases: Foo Fighters; Friko; Miss Grit; Doug Gillard; Noah Kahan; Metric; Dale Watson; Gia Margaret; Julia Cumming (Sunflower Bean); The Reds, Pinks & Purples; Dave Douglas; Failure; White Denim; Ringo Starr; Atreyu; Chet Faker; OOIOO x Lightning Bolt; Mikaela Davis; Angelo D’Augustine; In Ropes (Madison); The Flavor That Kills (Madison) ARCHIVAL: Lee Morgan ‘56; John Coltrane ‘61; Ahmad Jamal live ‘76; Joe Henderson live ‘78; Roy Hargrove live 2000

April 24 Birthdays: Rube Bloom b.1902; Eldon Shamblin (Texas Playboys) b.1916; Johnny Griffin b.1928; Freddie Scott b.1933; Dick Kniss (Peter, Paul & Mary) and Joe Henderson b.1937; Glen Dale (The Fortunes) b.1939; St. Clair Lee (The Hues Corporation) b.1944; Collin Walcott (Oregon / Codona) b.1945; Steve York (Manfred Mann Ch. Three) b.1948; Paul Ryder (Happy Mondays) b.1964; George Tomsco (The Fireballs) is 86; John Williams (Sky) is 85; Barbra Streisand is 84; Tony Visconti is 82; Doug Clifford (CCR) is 81; Stafford James is 80; Hubert Ann Kelley (The Hues Corporation) is 79; Robert Hyman (The Hooters) is 76; Nigel Harrison (Blondie) is 75; Jack Blades (Night Ranger) and Captain Sensible (The Damned) are 72; Boris Williams (The Cure) and David J (Bauhaus / Love and Rockets) are 69; Billy Gould (Faith No More) and Paula Frazer (Tarnation) and John Convertino (Calexico) are 63; Patty Schemel (Hole) and Shannon Larkin are 59; Aaron Comess (The Spin Doctors) is 58; Brian Marshall (Creed) is 53; Barry Stock (Three Days Grace) is 52; Kelly Clarkson is 44; Tyson Ritter (The All-American Rejects) is 42; Ben Howard and Jessica Pratt are 39; Kehlani is 31; Hailey Wojcik is ??

Farewell Taylor Kirk, leader of Canadian atmospheric folk rock band Timber Timbre (2005-2026) gone at 44.

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Review by Mark Deming

"It's all about this love/It's all about this pain/It's all about the loss/We take to live again." Those lines hardly tell you everything there is to know about Alejandro Escovedo's songwriting, but he's rarely expressed his key themes with such strength and concision as he does in the first verse of "About This Love," and while Escovedo's fifth studio album, A Man Under the Influence, doesn't stray far from the musical and lyrical themes that have dominated his previous work, he's rarely (if ever) put the pieces together quite as well as he does here. Escovedo's latest lineup of his orchestra -- anchored by Brian Standefer on cello, Eric Heywood on pedal steel, Mike Daly on keyboards and guitar, Hector Munoz on drums, and Cornbread on bass -- sounds like his strongest and best controlled to date, as comfortable with the subtleties of "Wave" as the full-on rock of "Castanets." Quite simply, Escovedo has never sung better than he does on this set, running the emotional spectrum from plaintive longing to swaggering contempt and never sounding less than convincing at any stop along the way. And while Turner Stephen Bruton's production on Escovedo's first three studio albums was intelligent and intuitive, Chris Stamey's work on A Man Under the Influence suits him just as well while sounding clearer, sharper, and better focused; the sound catches the full range of Escovedo's personality while adding the sonic details that sometimes got lost on his previous records. And if love and loss still remain Escovedo's favorite themes, like Hank Williams or Leonard Cohen he seems to have something new and telling to say about them each time out; each of this album's 11 songs is worth hearing, and the cumulative effect is nothing less than stunning. No one who's heard Escovedo's work doubts his status as one of the finest singer/songwriters of his day, and he's never been heard to better advantage on disc than on A Man Under the Influence.

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