Product Description
Alejandro Escovedo is one of America’s most celebrated singer-songwriters and a huge influence on the contemporary Americana scene. His career stretches back to the late 1970s – he was in seminal West Coast punk band The Nuns (who famously supported The Sex Pistols at their last ever concert) and then in the early 80s in Rank & File, a band credited with inventing ‘cowpunk’, a forerunner to Americana.

Throughout the 80s and 90s he released a stream of critically acclaimed solo albums and then in 2003 nearly died from hepatitis C. Calexico, Lucinda Williams, Los Lobos & other acts he’d influenced recorded a tribute album to raise money for him – after this with his profile sky high he signed to EMI for whom he’s released 3 albums that have finally brought him to the international stage.

‘True Believer’ features the prime of his work – recordings for Rykodisc (solo and as part of Buick MacKane), tracks he recorded for EMI as part of True Believers plus highlights from the magnificent trilogy of albums he recorded for Bloodshot Records.

Escovedo refuses to be easily labelled – not “Latin” nor “singer-songwriter”, neither “alt-country” or “alt.rock” and ‘True Believer’ show how he’s blended a myriad of influences to create his own unique musical voice. The album is compiled by Garth Cartwright, author of “More Miles Than Money: Journeys Through American Music (Serpents Tail)”

True Believer: The Best Of Alejandro Escovedo

Disc 1
01. Wave
02. Rosalie
03. Crooked Frame
04. Put You Down
05. Slip
06. With These Hands
07. Last To Know
08. Sway
09. I Was Drunk
10. Guilty
11. Sacramento & Polk
12. About This Love
13. Don't Need You
14. Across The River

Disc 2
01. Hard Road *
02. The Rain Wont Help You *
03. Everybody Loves Me
04. Sex Beat
05. The End
06. John Conquest, You've Got Enough Dandruff On Your Collar To Bread A Veal Cutlet **
07. Say Goodnight **
08. Big Shoe Head **
09. Tired Skin
10. Pyramid Of Tears
11. One More Time
12. She Doesn't Live Here Anymore
13. Five Hearts Breaking
14. Gravity / Falling Down Again / Street Hassle [live]

* True Believers
** Buick MacKane

Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005J4CBAY/?tag=imwan-21

Amazon US (available October 11):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005J4CBAY/?tag=imwan-20

FYI, this tracklist will likely be slightly amended once samples are available... I suspect that at least a couple of the tracks are live performances and that "The End" on Disc 2 may be the Buick MacKane version rather than the Escovedo solo recording from Thirteen Years.

Good comp, but how I wish there were some live True Believers tracks on it. The few times I saw them they were a firebreathing monster, a true take no prisoners live act.