What It Is

You probably weren’t paying real close attention to the music that was performed at the DNC on Tuesday, but the tremendous, just-on-the-verge-of-blowing-up-huge Alejandro Escovedo played “People (We Only Gonna Live So Long)” from his new album Real Animal, a great documentary story-telling epic about the old days of the late 70s in New York. Alejandro is so cool he has roots in Texas, New York and San Francisco, and he’s been on stage with Bruce Springsteen recently. That’s pretty big stuff for an artist who was well-known and respected in Texas, but barely known at all anywhere else. And now he’s played at the DNC!

Another thing that makes his newest album particularly delicious for me is that it was produced by the legendary Tony Visconti, producer of T. Rex and David Bowie, among many, many others…including, ahem, me. I had the ridiculous good fortune to work with Tony a time or two during my low-level rock star period (though sadly, none of those recordings was ever released), and it was a whole education just to have dinner with him. He had these beautiful photos of him and Bowie hanging out back in the day that he had decided to hang in his bathroom. So cool. And that he was married to May Pang at the time made it even more fabulous.

Anyway, check out Alejandro’s website: http://www.alejandroescovedo.com.

PS His previous albums A Man Under the Influence and Bourbonitis Blues should be required listening for everyone. Yeah, everyone.