Escovedo Tour Prelude to New Album

Austin rocker's current road trek through the South intended to wind its way to Lexington, KY, where he'll record a new album, due out in June.

By Fred Mills

BLURT hero Alejandro Escovedo is currently in the middle of a short tour that will bring him to Asheville, NC, showcase venue the Orange Peel tomorrow night, Jan. 15. After that he'll have dates (as listed at his official website) in Virginia Beach, Charlottesville, Knoxville, Birmingham, Memphis and Louisville, then he'll take about three weeks off before resuming his road trek Feb. 11 in Santa Fe.

Escovedo and his band won't be cooling their heels during the break, however: following the Louisville gig they'll scoot over to Lexington, KY, home to St. Claire studios, where Escovedo recorded his last album, 2008's acclaimed Real Animal, with producer Tony Vicsonti.

In an interview published this week in Asheville's Mountain Xpress weekly, Escovedo explaied, "This tour is the beginning of the process of recording a new album... The record, as I see it, is a rock album along the lines of Real Animal only not autobiographical."

The Xpress article adds that "the new material has been developed over the course of Escovedo's residency at the Continental Club in Austin, Texas, where he's been presenting three new songs each week." He's also been unveiling selected tunes in concert on the current tour.

Escovedo's management indicated in an email to BLURT that a projected release date of June has been penciled in for the new album. It's slated to come out on Back Porch/Manhattan but no title has been determined yet.

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Read our 2008 interview with Escovedo, producer Visconti and Chuck Prophet, who co-wrote the songs on Real Animal with Escovedo: http://blurt-online.com/features/view/105/

More Al:

CD review: http://blurt-online.com/reviews/view/98/
Live review: http://blurt-online.com/concert_reviews/view/39/
Video filmed especially for BLURT: http://blurt-online.com/video/view/62/

[Photo Credit: Todd V. Wolfson]