In April 2005 The Shedd was introduced to Alejandro Escovedo. A lyricist with a remarkable ability to find subtle beauties and difficult truths in the stuff of everyday lives, Escovedo was named Artist of the Decade by No Depression long before the '90s were over...It's always been that you discover Alejandro Escovedo by accident--he has never been counted in the pantheon of gods popular culture. We found him that night; and once you find him, you don't forget. With great pleasure, we welcome him back to The Shedd for an intimate concert with guitarist David Pulkingham.
"Alejandro Escovedo writes as if he can see all of America from his own tiny spot on the highway: the rock-folk songs on his recent album Gravity (Watermelon) are as broad as the horizon, yet each carries a grain of personal conviction, of experiences lived, not dreamed." -- The New York Times (Sep 25, 1992)
"Artist of the decade: Alejandro Escovedo. We’ve been tossing that cover line around for almost a year now. Not simply because it’s one of those rare cases in which the co-editors' tastes converge, and certainly not out of some futile impulse to joust with the inequities of the recording industry. Because we really believe it, that’s why." -- No Depression (Fall, 1995)
"What does it take to make this man a star? Musically, Alejandro Escovedo is in his own genre, a folk-blues classicist with a gritty, plaintive voice and an equal fondness for dirty boogie and spectral balladry." Rolling Stone (April 26, 2001)
"To tide his fans over until his next studio release, Austin legend Alejandro Escovedo released Room of Songs this past Tuesday. The album, recorded live in Austin earlier this year, features Escovedo on guitar backed by a string quartet. For fans, its a reminder of Escovedo’s musical diversity. For non-fans, its a welcome introduction to one of America’s most talented songwriters." -- Twangville (Dec 7, 2005)
"Alejandro Escovedo is a musician's musician. Highly respected in the music community for hiw raw musical passion and eclectic creativity." -- concertlivewire.com (June 3, 2006)
"Alejandro Escovedo has been hailed as a poet, as a storyteller, and as one of the most important musicians of the last quarter-century. He blends rock, folk, blues and classically influenced music into a boundary-defying style that has won him a devoted following all over the world." -- National Public Radio (June 23, 2006)
"Alejandro Escovedo is one of America's best singer-songwriters. If he wasn't also one of the most unknown, his quietly magnificent performance last Friday at Zankel Hall, the intimate downstairs theater in New York's Carnegie Hall, would have qualified as a greatest-hits show." -- Rolling Stone (Dec 11, 2006)
"Few contemporary artists inspire the degree of rapturous critical praise, without the accompanying fame and fortune, as Alejandro Escovedo. Back in form after a near-death battle with Hepatitis C, the eclectic, imaginative songwriter and his extraordinary band perform songs from The Boxing Mirror, praised by Billboard as “a masterwork from one of the genuine lights in rock music.” -- PBS (June 23, 2007)