TEXAN SINGER-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo & The Sensitive Boys play upstairs at Kelly’s, Bridge Street, on Friday June 29 at 8pm.
Escovedo will perform songs from his new album Big Station, released on June 5, as well as songs from across his career and the 10 albums he has released since his debut Gravity in 1992.
Escovedo’s musical career began when he moved from Texas to California to play in the San Francisco punk scene in the 1970s. In the 1980s he re-located to Austin to form Americana band The True Believers, before going solo in the 1990s.
“I grew up in a family of 12 kids,” he says. “My brothers were into Latin jazz and percussion music, Cuban and Puerto Rican. My mother and father loved Mexican trio music, vocal groups. I had a cousin who turned me on to Elvis and Chuck Berry.
“The beautiful thing about punk was that it was all mix-and-match, at least until it started defining itself. You can’t be parochial about music. If you immerse yourself in something, listening to records over and over, it becomes a language, you could learn to speak it. Music became like a religion to me.”
Escovedo’s band The Sensitive Boys, featurs Hector Munoz, the artist’s drummer for 23 years; David Pulkingham has played guitar with Escovedo for the past seven years; bassist Bobby Daniel has been a member for more than a year. “I love my band,” says Escovedo. “Without them, I’d feel very alone. It feels like the right combination.”
Speaking about his career, Escovedo says: “You just do your good work and people care. A working musician is all I ever wanted to be. Hard work, to stay true to what you want to do, and eventually someone would notice for that very reason.”
Tickets are €17.50 and available in advance from Kelly’s on 091 - 563804.
