Name	Alejandro Escovedo
Height
Naionality	Chicago
Date of Birth	January 10, 1951
Place of Birth	San Antonio
Famous for

By the time he released his debut solo album, Alejandro Escovedo had already spent more than a decade playing punk (with the Nuns); cow punk (Rank & File); and full-tilt, triple-guitar rock & roll (True Believers). But the San Antonio-born artist really came into his own with Gravity and its equally stunning followup, Thirteen Years. Both albums -- smartly produced by guitarist Stephen Bruton -- were born out of tragedy, as Escovedo struggled to come to grips with the suicide of his first wife. From the chilling opening couplet of "Paradise" ("Did you get your invitation/There's gonna be a public hanging") to the sadder-than-Tom-Waits-at-closing-time "Broken Bottle" and the ghostly "She Doesn't Live Here Anymore," Gravity plays out like one long, cathartic sigh of grief, even when it rocks out with Faces-worthy abandon ("One More Time"). The air of melancholy lingers through most of the more richly orchestrated Thirteen Years, but the Tex-Mex-flavored swell of violins, cello, and harp in "Ballad of the Sun and the Moon" hints at a break in the clouds. Across both albums, Escovedo's triple-threat strength as a writer, singer, and arranger is in full display, his songs alternately evoking shades of the moody romanticism of Nick Drake, the ex-perimentalism of the Velvet Underground, and the unruly, street-poet glam of Mott the Hoople's Ian Hunter. (Both Gravity and Thirteen Years have been reissued with bonus discs featuring instrumental and live tracks; his cover of Hunter’s "I Wish I Was Your Mother" is a highlight on both.)

Escovedo's output for the rest of the '90s fell short of that staggering opening salvo of bitter-sweet pathos, though the uneven With These Hands and The Pawnshop Years (featuring his endearingly sloppy garage band Buick MacKane) are not without their charms, particularly the former's Willie Nelson duet, "Nickel and a Spoon." The live More Miles Than Money makes for a fine introductory set, complemented with wicked viola-and cello-driven covers of the Rolling Stones' "Sway" and the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog." Smart covers (Hunter's "Irene Wilde," Lou Reed's "Pale Blue Eyes") also carry the weight on Bourbonitis Blues, a half-live/half-studio affair. But with A Man Under the Influence, Escovedo delivered his most satisfying and fully realized batch of originals since his debut. Among the highlights: "Castanets," his best -- and rowdiest -- rocker to date; "Velvet Guitar," which channeled Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie; and the darkly atmospheric "Wave," which towers above everything else in his canon. A more restrained version of "Wave" is reprised on By the Hand of the Father, a soundtrack to a play about the plight of Mexican immigrants inspired in part by Escovedo's music. It's a moving but imperfect concept album -- all the spoken narrative discourages repeated listening. Escovedo's songs get their message across just fine without such extrapolations.