Alejandro Escovedo returns to explore “one of the most fascinating paths in music" (NPR Music) on Echo Dancing - a career-spanning collection that’s less a look back than a bold new turn for this sonic adventurer and singular creative mind. Completely reinventing and re-recording his previous work - with inspiration from Brian Eno and Judy Nylon and Suicide - Escovedo traces a one-of-a-kind musical life from ‘70s New York punk to Austin's "musical conscience and hometown hero" (NPR Alt Latino) to unflinching advocate for musicians’ mental health and immigrant causes. With the announcement of Echo Dancing - out March 29 via Yep Roc Records - Escovedo has also shared a scorching reimagining of “Bury Me,” a song he first wrote in the early ‘90s contemplating what would happen if he "should die before he turns 43"...fittingly it’s released today, on his 73rd birthday.
"I was planning this record just prior to boarding a plane to Italy to record with [co-producers] Don Antonio and Nicola Peruch," says Escovedo. "My original idea was to record an album of new material. But then I changed my mind and thought that revisiting songs from my various albums would be more interesting. I always feel that a well-written song can withstand a lot of abuse. Turning a past song inside out leads to discovery of new ideas you might not have understood. The songs never seem to be complete. They are always evolving.”
Throughout Echo Dancing, Escovedo revisits rarities from his ‘80s Austin groups Buick MacKane and The True Believers (natural picks for a recent Austin City Limits Hall of Fame inductee), solo standouts that had No Depression crown him Artist Of The Decade in the ‘90s and more recent work through 2018’s scorching and cinematic border epic The Crossing. That most recent album saw Escovedo deliver a powerful repudiation of the bigotry and xenophobia coming from Washington at the time - on a collection that garnered praise from CBS This Morning, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and NPR’s Tiny Desk - for a sound that channeled “Townes Van Zandt and Iggy Pop teaming up for a film noir soundtrack” (Billboard). Holding true to his musical vision since his time opening for The Sex Pistols as a member of punk pioneers The Nuns, Echo Dancing cements Escovedo as a too-often overlooked but integral legend of 21st century American music.
