Alejandro Escovedo – By The Hand Of The Father

While I have no idea whether Alejandro Escovedo is much of an environmentalist, no artist in modern music has benefited more from recycling. Throughout his solo career, Escovedo has drawn from material dating back to his hard-rocking days in the True Believers, showing how the same body of work breathes very differently depending on whether he’s presenting it as a solo acoustic performer, with chamber strings, with the big-band swagger of his brassy Orchestra or with the thrash of Buick MacKane. His career progression is marked not only by writing new songs, but by continuing to find new approaches to older ones.

By The Hand Of The Father moves his music into a different arena, through a theatrical production that places Escovedo’s musical development within a broader context and suggests an enduring legacy. Employing his songs as signposts along the border-crossing trail from Mexico into America, the format renews familiar fare such as “Ballad Of The Sun And The Moon”, highlighted by Rosie Flores’ gorgeous Spanish-language counterpoint, and the propulsive “Hard Road”, which here sparks a cross-generational dialogue. These songs sound like they could have been commissioned specifically for this project, just as newer material such as “Wave” was.

Ultimately, the result is less an Escovedo album than an ensemble performance, with Tejano mainstay Ruben Ramos, Los Lobos’ Cesar Rosas and Alejandro’s older brother Pete Escovedo among those reinforcing the spirit of community, while spoken-word selections from the script provide a narrative thread. Producer J. Steven Soles (once T Bone Burnett’s running buddy in the Alpha Band) meets the challenge of integrating the various musical and dramatic elements, achieving a seamless whole that stands alone as more than a souvenir soundtrack to the stage production.