Escovedo in Atlanta on January 26 Was in Tallahassee tonight :-)

[Guest guest]

Hey everybody. I have been putting stories out about Escovedo and his fight with Hep C for YEARS now. He is one of the few musicians who has been public about it and keeps it in the news! Lo and behold he popped up in my back yard tonight (FSU) and I went and heard him play. The music was AWESOME and he was VERY gracious about chattering with me for about an hour (I went EARLY) and allowed me to put out Hep C related materials where they were selling their T-Shirts and CD's! Then he asked me for some of Z's awesome postcards (risk factors-in English and Spanish) to take with him on the tour to pass out as well as the newer ones (write your Senator) from Hep C Caring Ambassadors! SO COOL! Here is the link where he is playing if you live in Atlanta. It is called The Earl. 488 Flat Shoals. East Atlanta, GA

Headlining:OK Productions presents: Escovedo OrchestraSupport:Jon Dee Graham National Grain Related Websites:alejandroescovedo.comjondeegragam.comnationalgrain.net Additional Info:$12 in advance;$15 at the door

http://zerotec.cybrhost.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?AFFIL=464O0PaF & Screen=CTGY & Store_Code=ztec001 & Category_Code=venue_Earl

's website can be found at: http://www.alejandroescovedo.com/

's website can be found at:

http://www.hepcaware.org/

Hep C Caring Ambassadors can be found at:

http://www.hepcchallenge.org/

I have heard play and I have heard 's CD. They are both awesome and I highly recommend purchasing them :-) (No.....neither of them asked me for an endorsement LOL I am just giving one anyway ;-)

I also placed flyers about the Tallahassee HCV Support group and flyers about the upcoming Hepatitis Awareness Day here in Tallahassee. I feel as if I had a GREAT Hep C advocacy day! Always trying ;-)

The link to the story here in the Tallahassee Democrat is:

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060120/ENT02/601200305 & SearchID=7323375621991

From desert to oasis: Escovedo's rootsy rebirthBy Kati Schardl DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

In Rolling Stone's five-star review of Escovedo's 2001 CD "A Man Under the Influence," critic Fricke praised the Austin icon's "power and elegance" and asked in exasperation, "What does it take to make this man a star?" Five years later, Escovedo might have an answer for that question. Perhaps what it takes to ascend to the heights is staring Death in the eye and finding the spark of a saving grace reflected there.

Escovedo collapsed onstage in 2003. Years of living with but barely acknowledging Hepatitis C brought the poet-patriarch-roots-music maestro to the threshold of that dark and silent gate. He very nearly died.

But Escovedo is nothing if not a survivor. Today, after a slow but steady climb back into the land of the living, the former road warrior is once again preparing to hit the highway for a tour that wends through Tallahassee on Wednesday. He's more than a "Man Under the Influence" these days. He's a man transformed and exalted, and the metamorphosis infuses every note on Escovedo's new CD, "The Boxing Mirror," due to be released in May. The disc was produced by Velvet Underground founder Cale, one of Escovedo's lifelong idols. "This is a very different record for me," Escovedo said from his home outside Austin, where he lives with wife Kim, a passel of children, some unruly chickens and a stable of guitars. "When I talked to Cale about it, it was important for me to express what I'd been through. I wanted to express that I'm strong again and no longer sick. "It was like the illness was a desert, and I'd made it across to an oasis that was green and forgiving. I wanted ('Boxing Mirror') to be a record of very personal things, not in the sense that the lyrics are a straight narrative of that experience, but in that you get the feeling of what it was like." Cale tinkered with Escovedo's trademark twang and stripped his signature, rootsy sound down to bare bones. Then he put it all back together in ways that left the songwriter surprised and deeply satisfied. "He took away all the stuff that would make people say, 'Oh, this is an alt-country record,'” Escovedo said. "(The sound) is more like putting Crazy Horse and a chamber orchestra together in the studio." Escovedo views the finished product - 11 songs fleshed out by musicians that include members of Escovedo's current touring "orchestra" - as a personal and musical milestone. The mere fact that he was healthy enough to make the CD is an even bigger accomplishment. "Before I left to go into the studio (The Lair in Los Angeles), I played some of the rough tracks for a friend," Escovedo said. "I was so excited to be working with Cale. My friend said, 'You know, that's really cool that you're going to go make a record with him, but the coolest thing is that you're making a record, period. Think about it - two years ago, we were sitting out in the garden, and you couldn't even walk to the gate.'” True believer

Escovedo was born into an intensely musical household where he heard everything from chi music to Elvis Presley hits to country classic to raucous rock 'n' roll to hook-drenched dance pop. Escovedo's brothers Pete and Coke played with such Latin rock rebels as Santana and Cal Tjader. His niece Sheila, Pete's daughter, became a funk percussion goddess with Prince. Escovedo followed a more radical road, forming punk posse the Nuns while in college in San Francisco. After that band folded, he moved to Austin and joined alt-country icon Rank and File before forming the True Believers with brother . The lineup included fellow singer-songwriter and aspiring guitar god Jon Dee Graham. "That was a really good rock 'n' roll band," Escovedo said. "It was three good songwriters coming into their own at the same time. "I was very proud of that band. It and (side project) Buick McKane are my favorite bands I've ever been involved with." After the Troobs split in 1987, Escovedo embarked on the series of solo sonic journeys that would establish him as one of the most influential, respected singer-songwriters on the burgeoning Americana scene. Albums such as "Gravity," the deeply personal "Thirteen Years," "With These Hands," "Bourbonitis Blues" and "A Man Under the Influence" brimmed with lyrical brilliance and musical honesty. Escovedo paid homage to the legacy of his dad, Pedro, and other Mexican-American immigrants in the acclaimed theatrical/musical production "By the Hand of the Father." He debuted the material in 1999. It was during a 2003 performance of "Hand of the Father" in Tucson, Ariz., that Escovedo collapsed. Today, he credits his recovery to love and a spiritual quest that led him to Tibetan Buddhism. Wife Kim had introduced Escovedo to Buddhist practice prior to his illness. "The first thing we did when I was released from the hospital in Arizona was to go see a group of lamas who were deconstructing a sand mandala," he said. "We got some of the sand from the mandala and had our malas (wooden Buddhist rosaries) blessed, and then we just kept hanging around because we wanted to be in that environment as long as we could." Escovedo and his wife struck up a friendship with a woman helping at the ritual. She invited them to her house, where she gave Escovedo a Precious Pill - a potent Tibetan remedy - that had been given to her by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Later, she helped the couple hook up with another group of lamas that included a Tibetan doctor. "When he first saw me, he said, 'You don't have liver cancer. You're going to be OK,'” Escovedo said. "For the first time, here was a doctor being openly kind to me, looking me in the eyes and talking to me in a way that Western physicians hadn't done. "That really kick-started (recovery) for me." Escovedo later received an "empowerment" from a rinpoche, or high lama, to begin the Medicine Buddha practice, one of the most powerful and healing practices in Tibetan Buddhist belief. He combined its meditations and remedies with a course of Interferon and other conventional medications. Like many musicians, Escovedo had no health insurance, and the bills were piling up. His musical peers rallied to the cause with a remarkable series of star-studded benefit concerts around the country. In 2004, Or Music released a double CD tribute, "Por Vida," that featured such artists as Lucinda , Cale, Ian Hunter, the Jayhawks, Son Volt, Rosie , Stamey and Calexico performing Escovedo's songs. "I went through a gamut of emotions about 'Por Vida,'” Escovedo said. "I would listen to it and just cry. It was the greatest gift and an even greater lesson. It made me want to get back on my feet and make music."IF YOU GO What: An Evening with the Escovedo Orchestra When: Wednesday; doors open at 8:30 p.m., showtime is 9:30. Where: Club Downunder in FSU's student union Cost: $10 for the general public, free for FSU students with valid IDs Phone: 644-6673

Originally published January 20, 2006

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Please, take time to catch an unsung heroBy Kati Schardl ROUNDUP

I beseech you - no, I urge you - to treat yourself to "An Evening with the Escovedo Orchestra" on Wednesday at FSU's Club Downunder.

I do this not because of my own long-standing acquaintance with Escovedo, which extends back to the dim, cavernous mid-'80s, when it seemed as if Escovedo's band the True Believers was playing in town every other week.

And I don't ask this of you folks to make up for subsequent visits by Escovedo, some of which were scandalously under-attended. Heck, one of those shows - it may have been the last time he and his always-excellent ensemble played at the Downunder - ranks as one of my favorite moments. To quiet the small but chattering crowd, Escovedo pulled his players off the stage and onto the club's floor for a mesmerizing acoustic set.

No, you should take this mid-week musical break because, first of all, he's currently traveling with a lineup of old and new musical compadres that reads like a Who's Who of the Austin music scene.

There's a mini-string section - longtime collaborator Standefer on cello and Poi Dog Pondering veteran Voelz on violin. Jon Dee Graham - a formidably gifted songwriter in his own right and a fellow founding member of the True Believers - is handling lap steel and guitar duties, and will open the show with a solo set.

Munoz, who's been touring and recording with Escovedo for years, is on drums. Mark Andes, a veteran of late-'60s prog-rock legend Spirit, plays bass. Bruce Salmon rounds out the lineup on keyboards.

And then, of course, there's Escovedo himself, a cracking good guitarist/singer and master of stage dynamics and dramatics who can rock like nobody's business and also bank his fire to a cozy smolder.

The set list most likely will include a hefty portion of songs from Escovedo's upcoming CD, "The Boxing Mirror," but it's bound to also feature tunes from all phases of his musical life. And then there are is excellent selection of covers, something of an Escovedo trademark. He likes to shred the heck out of such diverse ditties as "Sex Beat" by the Gun Club, the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and Ian Hunter's achingly gorgeous "I Wish I Was Your Mother."

So, yes, you'll be well and truly entertained, which is always a good reason to venture forth on a school night. There's also the matter of honoring the indomitable spirit - the divine spark, if you will - of a man who has made a truly remarkable recovery from catastrophic, near-fatal illness. Go, listen and wrap yourself in the magical, musical moment. It's the best way I can think of to pay tribute to one of American music's most unsung heroes.

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060120/COLUMNIST09/601200317/-1/COLUMNISTS