Alejandro Escovedo Sublime at Fillmore

I just went to hear Alejandro Escovedo and his String Quintet open for Los Lobos at the Fillmore in San Francisco. I loved hearing Alejandro play again, especially with the strings (two cellos, a violin, and two acoustic guitars including AE's). I left after Los Lobos had played just two or three songs because I wanted to keep the memory of Alejandro's music alive in my head. But before I left I went upstairs to have a look around at the amazing concert poster art framed and hanging all over the walls at the historic Fillmore. Then I saw Alejandro chatting with some people before he went behind a dark curtain. I turned around and realized his String Quintet was still standing at the bar sipping glasses of beer (the two cello players and the violin player). Something possessed me to walk up and start chatting with the attractive violin player whose name is Susan Voelz (formerly with Poi Dog Pondering). Actually, she stepped forward and was very open. I told her that I was there tonight just to hear them. She was happy to hear that and we talked for a little while. We even shook hands and I noticed she had a very solid handshake. She is the coolest.

Anyway, I asked Susan how Alejandro's health was doing, and she said he was doing really well overall, but that it was still tough. As I mentioned in a previous blog, he is recovering or learning to live with Hep-C. She then said, "He can't drink alcohol any more, and he takes a lot of Tibetan medicine every day." That's when it hit me. "No way," I said, "Does he meditate, too?" And she said that he does! That's only funny to me because I've been meditating like a madman for the past few months and even just took a new job at a major meditation center (Spirit Rock), but I didn't have any idea that my favorite musician/songwriter/singer is also into it. "Man," I told Susan, "I was listening to some of his lyrics tonight and thinking they could be Buddhist lyrics, in a way." She nodded in agreement and said, "Wait til you hear the album we're working on down in LA right now, especially this song called 'Die a Little Every Day.'" (I think that's the title she said, but Los Lobos was playing in the background.) The whole band is living in LA right now while they cut this new CD with John Cale producing. Alejandro said on stage tonight that his favorite all-time band was, in fact, The Velvet Underground.

In the meantime, their new live CD "Room of Songs" is now out and I'm listening to it as I type this at 1 a.m. No, the song "Pissed Off 2 A.M." isn't on this double album, but many great tunes are including the sweet "Rosalie" and most of the other songs they played in their sublime 50-minute set tonight at the Fillmore. My dream now would be to film a documentary about Alejandro. I still say he should be many times more famous and appreciated than he is! What's with the world, that they don't recognize the true artists right in their midst? Nobody has ever brought together the musical elements that he brings to the table--punk, alt country, Mexican folk, classical strings, hard rock, Western swing, and more. All right Irene, good night.

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The Death Penalty Is Barbaric (if you ask me)

As everybody knows, the state of California executed Stanley Tookie Williams at San Quentin last night. I'm not going to get into the politics of his specific case, except to say that I agree with the European Union and many others worldwide, including the Pope, the Dalai Lama, and a multitude of other authentic spiritual leaders--the death penalty is a barbaric practice that should be abolished in the U.S. as it has been banned already across Europe and elsewhere in the true "civilized world."

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's native Austria outlawed the death penalty back in 1950. Two of our very closest allies the United Kingdom (1973) and Australia (1984) have already abolished the death penalty, and our closest border countries Canada (1976) and Mexico (2005) have also both done away with capital punishment. (Dates in parenthesis are the years each nation withdrew the death penalty.) And which countries have decided, like the U.S., to keep the death penalty so far? Here's a partial list: China (People's Republic), Cuba, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, Rwanda, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Thailand, and Vietnam. (For complete lists of which countries do and do not have the death penalty, click on the title above.)

Lastly, this is an excerpt from today's SF Chronicle:

"Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said the city would keep (Tookie) Williams in its memory the next time it celebrates a victory against the death penalty somewhere in the world. Rome's Colosseum, once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, has become a symbol of Italy's anti-death penalty stance. Since 1999, the monument has been bathed in golden light every time a death sentence is commuted somewhere in the world or a country abolishes capital punishment."

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Interview Excerpt w/ George Saunders

Here's the end of a recent interview Slushpile.net did with writer George Saunders (click on title above for full interview):

Slushpile: What is your single-best, most-important, can'���t-live-without writing tip you would offer to aspiring authors?

Saunders: Keep going. Your subconscious mind is a lot smarter than you are. Just keep giving it a chance and in time it may reward you. Get out of the way a little bit, have fewer ideas about what kind of writer you are and what it is you are going to accomplish. Find out what kind of writer you are and be prepared to accept that writer, no matter how different he/she is from what you���'d hoped�.

Slushpile: What is your single-best, most-important, can'���t-live-without publishing tip you would offer to aspiring authors struggling to break into print?

Saunders: I know this advice feels facile but honestly--stop worrying about getting published. Think about writing something that comes from the heart and that you would feel unashamed to show to your greatest historical writing hero. Maybe we can'���t get there, but I think what every reader wants to read is someone in the act of swinging for the fences, unselfconsciously, with joy and abandon and the highest possible hopes. Who could resist that, right?

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George Saunders Curtseys to Isaac Babel

I just returned from seeing the writer George Saunders, who said he turned 47 a few days ago, give a reading on the University of San Francisco campus. This fine event was sponsored by the Swig Judaic Studies Program at the school, even though it was acknowledged that George Saunders is not Jewish, nor does he write about Jewish subjects, per se. Nonetheless, he was invited because the head of the department, a rather quick-talking professor named Andy who introduced the author, feels that George Saunders "will be read 100 years from now" and, he gushed, "is the most important American writer since, er, ah, EVER!" I would have said "since Mark Twain" if I were him, just to keep it in some context however fantastic the claim, but he made his point. Anyhow, apparently the way this whole event was justified involved some nod to the great Russian Jewish writer Isaac Babel that Saunders promised to make while he was up at the podium. That nod turned out to be pretty brief, but still quite poignant. The main thing Saunders did was read lots of his own recent writing, from three different well-known publications including The New Yorker ("Bohemians")*, Harper's ("In Persuasion Nation"), and GQ (a story about the city of Dubai). According to Saunders, "In Persuasion Nation" is the title story for his upcoming third short story collection scheduled for release in April, 2006.

As for Isaac Babel, Saunders said he felt that Babel combined two of his favorite writers into one--Ernest Hemingway and Jack Kerouac. Somehow that wasn't what I expected him to say, although he makes an arguable point. He said Babel showed him that you could combine Hemingway's tight, laconic sentences with Kerouac's more lyrical tendencies. I think it also had something to do with the voice of true experience. Saunders quoted Babel as having said often that, as a writer, "You must know everything." He added that his own story "Isabelle" (from his amazingly hilarious first book "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline") was inspired by Babel's Odessa childhood stories.

Saunders went on to answer a number of audience questions about craft, but most of what he said can be found in previously published interviews online. His main point about writing is always to be yourself, defects and all, and to "go towards the heat." And I'll leave you with perhaps his best line of the evening--"A pathetic person being degraded is (always) interesting to me." As you laugh at that, just remember Gogol's famous story "The Overcoat" and tell me it isn't true. (Suddenly I sound like James Lipton from the Actor's Studio on Bravo, don't I?) Lecture over.

*Title above is linked to "Bohemians" from The New Yorker site.

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Alejandro Escovedo Working with John Cale

I just found out that one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Alejandro Escovedo, is coming out with a new CD soon that is being produced by John Cale (of Velvet Underground). It will be titled "Room of Songs" and features Alejandro playing live in Austin with his String Quartet. Here's a URL to the article:

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001570665

If you aren't familiar with Alejandro Escovedo, you should seriously check out his music. He ought to be much better known than he seems to be. Here are some of the interesting facts on him:

1) According to Rolling Stone writer David Fricke: "Musically, Alejandro Escovedo is in his own genre." And he's not kidding.
2) Sheila E (former drummer for Prince) is a close relative of his.
3) He was born in San Antonio, Texas among a total of 12 kids.
4) His father is a well-known mariachi player and the brother of Pete Escovedo.
5) In the mid '70s, he played bass for The Nuns--one of the most legendary punk bands in San Francisco music history who opened for the Sex Pistols' last gig (at Winterland).
6) His next band was the highly influential country-punk (aka "cowpunk") band Rank and File back down in Texas.
7) First solo album earned him "Musician of the Year" at the 1993 Austin Music Awards.
8) In 1998, he was named "Artist of the Decade" by the alternative-country magazine No Depression.
9) Signed with Chicago's Bloodshot Records who released his first live record, "More Miles Than Money: Live 1994-1998"--one of my personal favorite albums of all time (partially recorded at Seattle's Tractor Tavern where I saw Alejandro perform).
10) Collapsed after a show in Phoenix on April 26, 2003 and was hospitalized due to complications from Hepatitis C.
11) An amazingly star-studded tribute album was released to help pay for Alejandro's large medical bills because he didn't have health insurance.
12) "Por Vida: A Tribute To The Songs Of Alejandro Escovedo" features Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, John Cale, Calexico, Cowboy Junkies, Charlie Sexton, Jayhawks, Son Volt, Charlie Musselwhite, and many others.

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