Alejandro Escovedo at Susanna's Kitchen 5/29

I went and saw Alejandro tonight at the monthly music presentation at the Methodist Church here in Wimberley. He had his guitarist Jeff Polkinghorn, cellist Brian Sandifer, and violinist Warren Hood as his band. Rolling out new songs along with a few chestnuts from the Al as Solo Act bag, the group was superb, on point, with Warren at times going completely over the top. The precision of the unit flavored with Polkinghorn's flamenco flourishes was like a chamber quartet doing Beethoven back when Beethoven was still alive and rocking, both timeless and contemporary. At the conclusion, it was announced Al was the first to play the sanctuary, rather than the parish hall. The string thing and the partial preview of the new album have laid down a marker that will be difficult to reach.

Al told me afterwards Carrie Rodriguez would be joining band when they hit the road in two weeks, opening for the Dave Matthews Band. As the new album Real Animal looks back on a life of forty years of hard rockin’, the kid looks like he’s finally going to get the break of a lifetime.

Suerte.