He’s played Lexington for 30 years. Now he’s opening for Jason Isbell at Rupp.

Walter Tunis

September 4, 2024 at 5:59 PM·7 min read

When Alejandro Escovedo settled into his first Lexington performance, a date at the now long-goneLynagh’s Music Club during the summer of 1996, artist and audience were new to each other.

Already a revered name within a new generation of Texas-rooted songwriters and blessed with a vast and resourceful affinity for multiple levels of rock ‘n’ roll, Escovedo knew little of Kentucky outside of some Louisville club shows he played a few years earlier and nothing at all about Lexington.

“Lexington came as a complete surprise to me,” Escovedo said. “I was surprised anyone there even knew how to pronounce my name, honestly.”

But enough curious fans turned out that night to pack Lynagh’s. In return, Escovedo delivered a performance that shifted from elegantly delicate folk reflections adorned by cello and violin to the kind of paint-peeling, post-punk rock ‘n’ roll Iggy Pop would have been proud to claim as his own. In fact, a cover of Pop’s raucous “I Wanna Be Your Dog” was served as an encore that night. It would resurface in many of Escovedo’s subsequent visits to the club.

Alejandro Escovedo has played Lexington venues, for decades. As he winds down touring, he’ll play his biggest gig here yet: Opening for Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit at Rupp Arena.

Played Lynagh’s, The Dame, Willie’s, Natasha’s

So began a relationship with Lexington that has lasted nearly three decades. In addition to numerous repeat performances at Lynagh’s, Escovedo has played a handful of local haunts that also have since vanished (The Dame, Willie’s Locally Known and Natasha’s Bistro), outdoors for the Christ the King Oktoberfest and indoors with multiple outings at the Kentucky Theatre. A unique 2001 performance at Joseph-Beth Booksellers matched his music with readings by the now-departed Southern novelist Larry Brown.

Escovedo has also recorded two albums here — 2008’s “Real Animal” and 2010’s “Street Songs of Love,” both with longtime David Bowie/T. Rex/Thin Lizzy/Moody Blues producer Tony Visconti, at the now-defunct St. Claire Recording Co. (today the studios of WUKY-FM.)

Perhaps his most distinctive Lexington adventure was an acoustic performance backed by strings at the Lexington Opera House in 2003 the same night that, two streets over, Cher played Rupp Arena.

Coming to Rupp Arena with Jason Isbell

Now it’s Escovedo’s turn to take on Rupp. Though he has been absent from Lexington stages for six years, he will make a king-size return by opening for Jason Isbell at the arena.

Jason Isbell will play Rupp Arena with Alejandro Escovedo on Sept. 6.

“I remember just having the most wonderful shows in Lexington. I mean, those shows at Lynagh’s were on another level on some nights. I met some beautiful people there.”

What brings Escovedo back to town is a record that summons songs from throughout his career and recasts them with new and often wildly modernistic settings. Titled “Echo Dancing” after a lyric in his 2002 tune “Inside This Dance,” the record came about in almost happenstance fashion. Escovedo was traveling to Italy to make what he termed “a totally improvised record” with multi-instrumentalist Don Antonio (who accompanied Escovedo at his last local concert, a 2018 show at Willie’s Locally Known) and keyboardist Nicola Peruch. But after getting reacquainted with “Por Vida,” a tribute/benefit album of Escovedo songs by other artists designed to offer aid to the singer when his career was sidelined by Hepatitis C beginning in 2003, the course of the new recording shifted.

“I hadn’t really thought of the record in the way it evolved,” Escovedo said “My intentions were to go to Italy, meet Nicola and Antonio and make a record that was improvised. I had some ideas, little ideas to work with, but nothing really solid. Then I started listening to the ‘Por Vida’ record they put out when I was ill and I really fell in love with Calexico’s version of ‘Wave.’ Then I listened to John Cale’s version of ‘She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.’ I just loved how those two interpretations of the songs were so different and yet the soul of each song was still very evident. I thought, ‘What a great idea in how to do this.’”

The revisions on “Echo Dancing” are often dramatic, some with a sparse framework of guitar and saxophone (“MC Overload”), others with soaring textures of synth-devised beats and ambience (a rewired version of the Escovedo concert favorite “Castanets” now titled “Casta?uelas.”) Similarly, the timeline of the source material for “Echo Dancing” is considerable. It stretches from songs by Escovedo’s pre-solo career band True Believers to works from his most recent studio album, 2018’s “The Crossing.”

“I wanted the songs to be far-reaching, but I was never conscious of the fact that I was creating an anthology,” Escovedo said. “But, at the same time, as I near the end of this career, these kinds of things are just going to develop naturally in some way. It’s all about gathering things from the past. It’s funny that in digging into the past, you really lay out what the future will look like.”

Could this be his last Lexington show?

Come again? What’s all this “near the end of my career” business?

“Well, I’m 73 now and I’ve been touring for 50 years. This doesn’t get easier. It gets a little more difficult every year. I don’t mean this like there’s any sort of scare. It’s not like that. It’s just a natural progression that after having done something for so long that is so physical and, sometimes, so mentally exhausting you ...”

Want to spend your time wisely?

“Exactly. That’s the perfect way to put it. That’s what I’m attempting to do.”

Some Escovedo fans accustomed to the roots-driven narratives and melodies of his early recordings may find the more synth-savvy updates on “Echo Dancing” to be, well, unexpected. But he is quick to point out his career has been built around multiple styles, sounds and influences, some spanning several cultures and generations of rock ‘n’ roll.

“What people forget about my music, especially here in Texas, is that I had quite a life prior to working here. I was born in Texas, but we moved to California when I was seven years old. I grew up in Southern California on the beaches. It was the late ’50s into the ’60s. A lot was happening and I got turned on to all kinds of music.

“I was fortunate in that there was a record store on Main Street where this old hippie guy would turn me on to great imports. So I was listening to Kraut Rock (experimental music out of West Germany beginning in the late ’60s) — artists like Can and Cluster. He turned me on to all the Roxy Music records that I love very much and all the (Brian) Eno records. If it wasn’t for Eno, I don’t know if I ever would have played music. He really kind of opened the door to that whole concept of music for non-musicians. So people tend to think I’m just this kind of Americana songwriter living in Texas.

“When I used to tour Europe at first, everyone was really disappointed that I wasn’t more like Guy Clark or Townes Van Zandt. I mean, I just wasn’t.”

Ahead for Escovedo are numerous projects including a memoir, an accompanying theatre piece and plans/hopes for several more recordings. For the present, though, there is the concert at the big house of Rupp with Isbell to help him get reacquainted with Lexington.

“I did shows with Jason back when he was with Drive-By Truckers. I think I turned him on to The Red Iguana in Salt Lake City, which was our favorite Mexican restaurant.

“Jason is a great songwriter. It’s really amazing to me, though, because he kind of came out of nowhere in a sense. One minute he was the guitar player in Drive-By Truckers. Then suddenly, he’s created some really beautiful songs and music and put together a hell of a band that’s taken on the world. So, hats off.”