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Alejandro Escovedo & Joe Ely

Alejandro Escovedo & Joe Ely

Tonight, two Texas legends share the stage for a truly rare and unforgettable evening!

About Alejandro Escovedo:

Alejandro Escovedo’s solo recording career began in 1992 with Gravity, hailed in its very first review by The Austin Chronicle as “a near perfect album of stunning originality… some of the greatest music to be found anywhere and anytime.” Such consistent unstinting praise has marked every release that followed through to Street Songs of Love, described as "ageless rock ‘n’ roll” by The Washington Post and “required listening” by The New York Post. It’s no wonder that veteran Rolling Stone critic David Fricke pondered some years ago, “What does it take to make this man a star?”

But stardom has never been the motivation or the goal for Escovedo. He was raised in Southern California in a very musical family with a father who played in mariachi bands and older brothers who made their marks as noted percussionists in such pioneering Latin rock groups as Santana and Azteca.

In his teens Alejandro was a devoted surfer by day who spent many of his nights going to rock ‘n’ roll concerts. It wasn’t until he was in college in San Francisco that he started playing guitar and formed a group with some friends. They became The Nuns, a seminal act in the burgeoning San Francisco punk scene, who opened for The Sex Pistols on the final date of their ill-fated 1978 U.S. tour at Winterland. He went on to play guitar in Rank and File, whose post-punk rocking twang presaged the rise of Americana and alt-country a decade or so later.

The band eventually landed in Austin, Texas, where Escovedo started a hard-charging roots rock group, The True Believers. The group’s ill-starred run saw them debut with a well-received album on EMI Records, only to be dropped from the label on the eve of the release of their follow-up (both were later issued in 1994 on CD by Rykodisc in one package titled, Hard Road).

Ultimately he has continued to thrive creatively by following a basic guiding precept passed down to him by his older brothers: “If it’s all about the music, then let it be about the music,” insists Escovedo. By doing so he has served his music well, while it has at the same time carried and comforted him through life’s turns and travails. Consequently, his listeners reap a bounty of all but incomparable richness, depth and emotional impact from a truly great American musical artist.

“one of rock-and-roll’s most beloved survivors… ageless rock-and-roll.” – Washington Post

“Musically, Alejandro Escovedo is in his own genre.” – David Fricke, Rolling Stone

About Joe Ely

Joe Ely was born between Route 66 and the Rock Island Line in Amarillo, Texas, and he saw Jerry Lee Lewis playing on a flatbed trailer in an Amarillo dust storm when he was six-years-old. Since then he’s had a career than can fairly be called mythic. His songs about the geographic and romantic landscapes of the Lone Star State are pure poetry, but there’s no other Texas songwriter on whom rock has left a stronger mark. Joe was a member of the original Flatlanders, a backup vocalist with the Clash, and a member of Los Super Seven. Joe has also shared the stage with Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, the Clancy Brothers, and Uncle Tupelo. He is a true pioneer of “outlaw country,” Americana, and Texas music.

Joe is a recent recipient of the Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award. In the words of Texas music writer Joe Nick Patoski, Joe Ely was born “to roam the earth and preach the gospel of the Roadhouse, extolling the virtues of the nowhere-else-but-Texas pressure cooker environment where hard-core country and the rawest kind of rock and roll collide on the dance floor every Saturday night.”

Event Contact

4102761651

Event Details

Tuesday, August 15, 2017, 7:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Prices:
$40
$48

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