By MarÌa Eugenia Guerra

A Man Under the Influence
Alejandro Escovedo
Bloodshot Records

There isn’t a dud track on Alejandro Escovedo’s A Man Under the Influence, which makes the entire album a powerful gem of elegant lyrics set to the plaintive strum of acoustic guitar and the strains of violin, pedal steel, and cello.

The haunting quality of the first two cuts, "Wave" and "Rosalie" -- written for the stage play By the Hand of the Father -- set up the rich landscape of Escovedo’s heart and the isolated migratory terrain of his mexicano ancestry.

Listening to Alejandro Escovedo for the first time was evocative for me of the first time I heard Los Lobos so many years ago and felt a mighty cultural resonance of music that might belong to me, music with its roots deep in the same dusty borderlands.

Escovedo’s roots in punk peek out a bit in "Castanets" as does his affinity for rock in "Velvet Guitar," but the rest of the album fairly drips with romance, beautifully articulated introspections, and lovely music. In addition to a long and credible career as a musician (the Nuns, Rank and File, the True Believers), Escovedo is also a gifted writer.
From "Rhapsody:"

So if the melody escapes me,
I will stumble across it soon.
If it's not a rhapsody
The memory will have to do.
Well look who’s crying now
I can't forget your name
There’s plenty of shadows
along the way
Who’d be glad to pass the blame
If it’s my fault, I’ll pay the cost
You be the one
to keep the score. . . .
First you said you loved me
Then you changed your mind
I wish I could hear it
One more time.

(I found A Man Under the Influence at Hogwild Records in SA, hogwildrecords@hotmail.com.)