Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 6, 1993 TAG: 9308050118
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL CSOLLANY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
He sings about despair without pity, redemption without cliche and promise without sugar-coating.
There's drama in his words, but not melodrama.
But the style of the pensive singer-songwriter who is the Saturday-night headliner at the Steppin' Out festival is not as easy to relate.
"It's pretty difficult to describe my style because it's all over the place," he said in a telephone interview.
Escovedo has been known to sing the same song as a bar-band rocker, country-folk ballad or spiritual overture, depending on the time or place.
He's been compared to a variety of artists - Los Lobos, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed and Ian Hunter - many of the same musicians who, he says, inspired him.
His 1992 release "Gravity" reflects a compilation of songs he's created the past five years - a period marked by painful events, he said.
One song, "Paradise," reflects his lack of hope.
"I wrote that song during a period of time when I was really down. I had broken up with my wife. I was living alone. I just felt that there wasn't any salvation really," Escovedo said.
"Gravity" is also about promise as seen in the laughter of Escovedo's daughter Maya in the title track.
Despite being a somewhat serious musician, Escovedo said he enjoys performing live. His audiences, he said, usually feel the same way. "My songs aren't real party songs. There are situations where they go over better than others. But when people listen, I think they work," he said.
Escovedo is back in the studio working on his second solo endeavor - a true endeavor now that his life is relatively calm.
"I knew I wouldn't be able to make as emotionally strong a statement as `Gravity' was. . . . I'm not saying that this will necessarily be a happy record, but I just keep writing," he said.
Escovedo comes from a musically inclined family. His brother is Pete Escovedo - a percussionist with Santana. And his niece is Sheila E., a well-known solo artist as well as a former drummer for Prince.
After a few musical jaunts, Escovedo hooked up with his brother Javier to form the True Believers in the early '80s. The True Believers were legend in Escovedo's native Texas and frequently toured nationally - sometimes as the opening act for Los Lobos.
But when the band's second album was never released by EMI Records, the group dissolved in frustration.
That was 1988.
Escovedo did not bounce back immediately.
"I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I got a job at a record store for awhile," he said. "I eventually played solo, adding friends here and there, and ended up with a 13-piece band."
Most of that band will stay at home, though.
Escovedo will be appearing with a string trio at the Blacksburg festival - just him on guitar, with a violinist and cellist.
by CNB