Alejandro Escovedo Shares Amazing Music Journey at San Antonio’s Stable Hall

On May 31, 2024, the virtuoso rock musician, songwriter, and singer Alejandro Escovedo entertained a sold-out audience at the new Stable Hall music venue at the Pearl in San Antonio.  Over the past fifty years, Escovedo has been a recording and touring force.  Initially known as a Latino punk and roots rocker, he has evolved over the last thirty years writing and recording songs in alternative country roots rock and blues rock.  

Alejandro Escovedo [with Jonas Wilson on bass] at Stable Hall. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

A native of San Antonio, Texas Alejandro Escovedo's family lived in the city’s Westside until the family migrated to Southern California in the late 1950s to pick crops. Although it was seasonal work, his parents decided not to return to their home state and settled in Huntington Beach. His father, a native of Mexico, boxed professionally during the Great Depression years and also performed as a Mariachi musician.  The senior Escovedo’s commitment to music influenced his children to take up music, and eight of Escovedo’s twelve siblings are musical performers.

At the Stable Hall performance, Escovedo recalled his Westside San Antonio family migrating to California.  He told the audience his father told them they were going on vacation. The family had one car for the twelve children and Escovedo joked that some of his siblings were in the trunk, some tied to the car roof, and others ran behind. 

Early in his life, Escovedo had two passions, music and surfing. He left surfing in the late 1960s and turned his attention to playing electric guitar.  His earliest memories of good music were listening to rock and roll on the radio. Early in his career, he played with the Stooges, stalwarts of loud psychedelic music.   Escovedo loved rock music–the louder the better. He told an Austin Vida newsletter interviewer: “With the Stooges, it was like you paid money to sit inside a hurricane.”   

Alejandro Escovedo [with Jonas Wilson on bass] at Stable Hall. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

In 1975 Escovedo formed a band, The Nuns, one of the early punk rock bands that once opened for Sex Pistols in San Francisco. The music was well-received and he moved the band to New York and lived at the famous Chelsea Hotel.  While on tour in 1983,  the band played a gig in Austin and Escovedo decided to relocate because Texas felt more like home.  The Austin live music scene, small music venues, good Mexican food, and warmer weather were conducive to music creativity.

 Upon his arrival in Austin, Escovedo formed the band True Believers with his brother Javier and recorded numerous albums.  They began playing in small venues including the Cactus Cafe at the University of Texas Austin. They also played at the Continental Club and Zona Rosa. Escovedo also performed on Austin City Limits and became a regular at the SXSW music festivals. 

Escovedo began to write songs in the 1980s.  He called his songwriting autobiographical because he wrote largely about events he had experienced. When he first started to create songs, he had been divorced, had children, and felt a need to share stories stored in his memories.  Initially, his music was influenced by Bob Dylan’s style and other ballad singers.  Escovedo told the Austin Vida  journal “I never write about anything I haven’t experienced.” 

Alejandro Escovedo [with Austinite Mark Henry on drums] at Stable Hall. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

 Escovedo’s songwriting got the attention of Bruce Springsteen who called on him to join him onstage at a performance in Houston in April of 2008. Escovedo recalls that his life changed after that day. That summer when Barrack Obama first ran for office in 2008, Escovedo performed at the Democratic National Convention and later performed on Letterman, Leno, and Conan.  The same year, Escovedo picked up Musician of the Year, Album of the Year, and Songwriter of the Year accolades at the Austin Music Awards. 

Rolling Stone noted: “Escovedo has blended the lyricism of Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne with the raw power of the Stooges and the Velvet Underground… the result is music with heart, brains, and a burning sense of adventure.”  

 Premier Guitar writer Joe Coffey explained that Escovedo has a wider music range and diversity than most,  “from gentle ballads with string sections to aggressive punk and everything in between, sometimes within a single song.” That musical range was evident at the Stable Hall as he performed Sally Was a Cop, Sensitive Boys, Castanets, Rain Didn’t Come,  Bury Me, and more.

UTSA Professor, author, and former documentary producer John Philip Santos is writing a book about Escovedo. He told me that Escovedo once had an 18-member orchestra in Austin that played a wide range of music.  In his third album, Escovedo featured a guest performance by  Austin music legend Willie Nelson. 

Alejandro Escovedo is a member of a prominent American musical family including five professional musician brothers and his niece percussionist Sheila E. Among his brothers is the 88-year-old percussionist  Pete Escovedo, father of Sheila E.  Pete played with major Latino bands and formed the Escovedo Bros Latin Jazz Sextet before Carlos Santana hired two of the brothers for the famous Carlos Santana band.   “Coke” Escovedo, Pete’s younger brother,  excelled in various genres, including R&B, jazz fusion, and soul, and played with well-known bands including Santana, Malo, and Azteca.

Escovedo loves live performances and enjoys joining the audience during some of his sets to talk about his life as well as singing directly to the folks attending.  At the Stable Hall, Alejandro Escovedo walked down the center aisle singing “Sensitive Boys,”  one of the songs he dedicated to his older brother Manuel who recently passed away. One of Escovedo’s sisters attended the performance.

Alejandro Escovedo at Stable Hall. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Escovedo credits his evolution as an artist to bands he has played with and artists he has performed with.   Writing for WXPN Radio, Claire Brown described Alejandro’s music in this way: “Escovedo might be roots-rock royalty, but he still plays with the conviction of a young punk just getting his start.”  At the Pearl’s new Stable Hall venue, Escovedo played at least five different guitars to fit his mix of rock blues. Brown observed:  “Fifty years into his career, Alejandro Escovedo still rocks,” adding that “the San Antonio singer-songwriter is in that victory-lap moment of his career.” 

Escovedo’s  album, The Crossing,” received special recognition from CBS This Morning. In an interview in 2018,  the commentators noted that the album “delivers a powerful repudiation of the bigotry and xenophobia coming from Washington.”  Draconian Republican immigration policies bothered Escovedo whose father Pedro Escovedo emigrated to the United States at age twelve from Saltillo, Mexico.  

Alejandro Escovedo [with Jonas Wilson on bass and Scott Danborn on keyboard] at Stable Hall. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Escovedo also explained to NPR that his songs are “always evolving.”  The song “Bury Me”  written in the early 1990s was released in 2024. He explained, “Turning a past song inside out leads to new ideas you might not have understood.”  His creative lyrics and music have earned him entry into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame and the crown of “Artist of the Decade” by music media No Depression. 

At the Stable Hall concert, Escovedo played with great energy and the songs resonated with his San Antonio audience. Many in the packed concert hall knew his songs by heart and occasionally joined in–as  when he sang “Don’t Know Why” and  “Everybody Loves Me.”  I left the Pearl knowing that Escovedo had certainly demonstrated why everyone loves his music. I hope he makes San Antonio his second home and returns to the Stable Hall often.