Success the Hard Way: Alejandro Escovedo

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YOU KNOW WHY ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO axed his song "Castanets" from his live set after learning Dubya put it on his iPod?

"I love Fugazi. I love that band Weird War. I have a lot of respect for Ian Svenonius and his crew."

(Actually, the two facts are not related.) (But they should be! Because ...)

Escovedo embodies the American story. Dreams, sweat, freeways, ambition, failure, cheating death.

He kick-started San Francisco punk with The Nuns and basically invented alt-country with Rank and File and The True Believers. After a life-threatening head-on with quote-unquote the rock lifestyle, he quit drinking for good.

His latest album, "The Boxing Mirror," was recorded with John Cale. It's a melting pot of homegrown American sounds with chamber strings. It's widely proclaimed a masterpiece. But his first studio album for Bloodshot Records was titled "A Man Under the Influence" — a nod to another American maverick, actor and director John Cassavetes.

Cassavetes "did the highest quality work. He stayed true to his art. He was independent of the system. But he understood the system as an actor. He worked on instinct."

Contrary to accepted practice, he shot footage, then immediately "invited people off the streets to see the dailies. That's so punk rock. His art belongs to everyone."

As does Escovedo's. But it doesn't start there.

"As a songwriter, there's this room. No one enters but me. It's lonely, sometimes painful. The songs you get that are completely illuminated and transcend that room are rare," says Escovedo. "They're a great joy."

"But I don't want to live there anymore. I want to direct the songwriting away from me." Not unlike a certain film director. Or like Jonathan Demme, who's directing a forthcoming Escovedo documentary.

Escovedo's new album — co-written with guitarist Chuck Prophet — tells of "the places I've lived and the music of those places. And the characters who live there. There's been a lot of faces, a lot of bodies and souls. We've all had these rock 'n' roll dreams. But its not always what you imagine."

» The Barns at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Road, Vienna; Fri., 8 p.m., $25; 703-255-1868.

Written by Express contributor Bob Massey
Photos courtesy Bloodshot Records