Genre-hopping Escovedo to play the Grand

Alejandro Escovedo is one of the heroes of contemporary American and roots music, although it took nearly two decades for his work to become widely appreciated. Though he’d been an underground favorite for years, it was in the late 1990s that he surfaced, with his popular album “A Man Under the Influence,” which features contributions from Ryan Adams and the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Alternative country magazine No Depression also named him Artist of the Decade before the ’90s were even finished.

Born in San Antonio, Texas, to a Mexican-American father, Escovedo was one of 12 brothers and sisters. His father played in mariachi bands, hustled pool and worked in shipyards on the side. He comes from a musical family; two of his brothers continue to play percussion and drums with various Latin musical outfits.

Escovedo was an early member of the burgeoning West Coast punk rock movement when he was in college in San Francisco, and his late ’70s band, the Nuns, opened for the Sex Pistols on its legendary tour of the United States. After returning to Texas, he embraced old country and western music, in addition to his primal influences from such bands as the Velvet Underground, T. Rex and the Stooges.

Escovedo’s warm, loose-limbed style is equal parts garage rock, country, Tejano and straight-up singer-songwriter, in the vein of Elvis Costello and Lou Reed. He has branched out into other mediums as well, as in his 2002 song cycle and theatrical collaboration “By the Hand of the Father.” Suffused with sweet, sometimes sad nostalgia, the album documents the lives of Mexican-American men throughout the century. The stage production that preceded the album played throughout the country, to great critical acclaim.

Since then, Escovedo has toured steadily, and has formed a not-for-profit organization called the Alejandro Fund, to raise money and awareness for sufferers of hepatitis C, which Escovedo contracted in 2003. His musical peers recorded a tribute album to the songwriter titled “Por Vida: A Tribute to the Songs of Alejandro Escovedo” to help raise money for the songwriter, who did not have health insurance and was unable to support his seven children.

Escovedo will be appearing tonight at the Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth, with his five-piece rock band and three-piece string section. His raw, percussive style of guitar playing and boozy, rough-and-tumble backing musicians rub up against the violin and cello to create a friction that’s both inviting and distinct. Escovedo is sure to please fans of practically any genre of music, so whether it’s blues, folk, punk or Latin you dig, get on down to Ellsworth tonight to check him out on his first visit to Maine.

Alejandro Escovedo will play at 7:30 tonight at the Grand Auditorium. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at www.grandonline.org or at the Grand box office. For information, visit www.alejandroescovedo.com. Emily Burnham can be reached at eburnham@bangordaily

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